The Monsters We've Become REMASTERED
by LM3ALLEM
Summary: "Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." (Stephen King) Clementine, eighteen years old and surviving in the apocalyptic world. She is on the road to insanity, but can anyone stop her? (OlderClemXLuke)
1. The Beginning of the End

**A/N: Welcome to the** **rewritten version of TMWB, my first fan-fiction. There's a few special authors that I would like to recognize and thank before I continue:**

 **- PeanutFangirl(It shouldn't be surprising): She writes the most amazing Fanfictions ever! She is the one that inspired me to write Fanfictions. She is also a role model to me! Check out her books. Right. Now.**

 **- The Rose of Hedylogos: She is like a celebrity in my eyes. If you wanna read some great books, I suggest checking out her account! We became friends a little while ago, I honestly thought that we were going to hate each other. I was wrong! :)**

 **-** **ClementineTWDG : Dude, this writer though...She honestly surprised me with her Fanfictions. I'm honestly just reading her books and I'm like, _HOW DID I NOT THINK OF THAT!?_**

 **- PikaChika: She writes one of the most impressive OlderClemXLuke stories, ever. She deserves so many more reviews than she actually has! Check out her book: Long Road Ahead. You won't regret reading it!**

 **- ColorsAndWords: Her book 'Little Nick' was so ****amazing. I'm so gonna draw little Nick, just for you! Love the book, can't wait for it to continue!**

 **- Red Eyed Rabbit: last but certainly not least! Her stories are soo cute! I find myself having cuteness attacks whenever I read her books. So. Amazing. Check. Out. Her. Books. **

**Quick thank** **you's/ Shoutouts!**

 **ClemmyclueIsMYnumberoneBOO!**

 **Littlemissnerdgirl!**

 **IzzyKins!**

 **Cap'n Morgan222!**

 **DaisyFan5534!**

 **Wolves82228!**

 **All great authors, check em' out! This story will be just a teeny bit different from the original, if you've read the original, DO NOT SPOIL.**

 **Also, this is an OlderClemXLuke story, any hate reviews will be deleted. I have my settings on 'Moderate** **Reviews'. If your review is negative with no constructive criticism, I will gladly delete it.**

 **Clementine is 18.**

 **WARNING:**

 **This book is rated T for: Gory violence** **throughout, moments of WTF, psychological horror, sexuality, swearing, alcohol and drug use.**

 **Viewer discretion is advised.**

The Monsters We've Become

 **Chapter One; The Beginning of the End**

Enjoy!

* * *

 _'A dark void consumed her, sending her into a pit of unending insanity. Forced to suffer. Forced to kill. We'll all follow her soon, but some of our paths end. Stop dead in their tracks. Hers keeps growing.' - A_

 _'Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win.' -Steven King._

* * *

The eighteen year-old was freezing, spending every moment of her time cursing at thin air. She rubbed her arms, trying to heat up a bit, but the worn fabric of her shirt did nothing beneficial.

Her fingers were an unpleasant purple and red color, it made the girl shiver even more on the inside. The air was crisp, biting at the girl's skin. The sky was draped in a black coat, no stars, and barely any moon.

The depressing frosty atmosphere didn't make anything better, not in the slightest. Where she was going, this was going to be a dream. It'll be worse up north, it was hard for her to even imagine.

The smoldering fire danced in front of her, illuminating her amber eyes. The fire would eventually die down and turn into nothing but ash. _Everything seems to die in this_ _world,_ the girl thought to herself.

The dead started walking about three years ago and the limits of human endurance were pushed. Some took the easy way out, while the rest stayed for a shot at survival. This included eighteen year-old Clementine.

The last of humanity was on the brink of extinction, but the ones with hope kept saying the same thing. _Life will find a way..._

Clementine tossed that bulls**t aside ever since the death of her 'guardian,' Lee. When Clementine was around him, she thought everything would turn out okay, but he died. And a part of her did as well.

He got bit saving her, and everyone knows what happens when you get bit - you 'turn.' A scorching fever sets in, and your bones feel like glass. Shattering and cracking whenever you move your suffering body.

And after about a few hours or even a day of that 'living hell,' you die. It kills you, but you come back. Reanimate as what most call a 'walker,' basically just a walking corpse with an impulse to feed - and what they feed on is the living.

Clementine couldn't let Lee turn. She wasn't going to let him turn into a walking corpse. So she shot him - right between the eyes, His blood was still stained on the front of her hat, permanently.

Whenever she thought about him, it felt like she was being shanked over and over again, her throat filling and clogging up with blood. Unable to breathe, hardly able to move.

The older woman sitting next to her let out a angry huff, she sat shoulder to shoulder with her on the small log. A few loose bangs from her tight bun fell in front of her face and she aggressively brushed them back behind her ears.

She then shoves her hands in her jacket pockets and glares at the teeny fire. "This fire is pathetic." She muttered, but just loud enough for Clementine to hear. Clementine wanted to retort with something, but couldn't come up with anything. Clem ran a hand over her scarred arm lightly.

Christa noticed, "If I catch you doing that again, you won't like the consequences." She stated.

"What're you gonna do? Ground me and take away my toys?" Clementine spat, sarcasm and sass lingered in her voice.

"You'll be eating off the mantlepiece, if you're lucky."

"Oh I'm scared."

Christa turns and glares at the teenager, her eyes darkened, and she snarled. Clem might've been a bit harsh, especially to a woman who lost her boyfriend and her child.

"You better watch what you're saying _girl_ , or you're gonna regret it." She said then stomped over to the fire and tried to keep it from going out.

She grabbed a twig and moved the burnt logs around, Clementine came back down to Earth and stuttered an apology.

"S-sorry Christa, just lately I've been.." Clem left it at that, not wanting to continue. Christa mentally accepted the apology.

"This'll never work." She said after a short silence, this was the most Christa has ever talked in awhile. It was 'music' to Clem's ears.

"The wood's too wet to burn." She continued, Clementine budded in, "Keep trying."

"There's only so much I can do. You should be doing this, not me, you're almost nineteen, you gotta learn how to cook and stay warm or else..."

"You die." Clementine added, she's heard it a thousand times. Christa nodded sadly and hung her head low.

Christa wasn't the woman she used to be, thats for sure. She's changed, mentally and physically. When Omid was around, she was as 'happy' as could be. Actually taking a joke once and awhile.

Now, she never cracks a smile. Clementine doesn't either, but she doesn't take it as seriously as her. Christa has shrunk just a bit in size, the baby belly was long gone and her height shortened by a few inches.

Clem and her were about the same height now, Clementine was almost 5'8'. Pretty tall for a person like her.

Christa zipped up her orange sweater, letting out a shiver. "We need to get to Wellington, the journey is gonna be hard, but it'll be worth it in the end. I assure you."

"Christa, what if there's nothing out there? What if Wellington is just a story?"

"We best pray it's not."

Christa lets out a angry huff and said, "I'm gonna go look for some more wood," before leaving the small campsite. She walked straight into the shrubbery, and in seconds, she was gone.

Clementine sat there, alone in the middle of the woods, freezing. She just stared up at the sky. Pitch black. Dark and empty, it seemed like everything was the same...

Clementine then ran her fingertips over a scar on her cheek, she remembers how she got it, the memory still crystal clear in her head...It was the girl that killed Omid. When Clem didn't give up her hat, she lunged at her.

The girl had a knife and used it, cutting her cheek. She remembered how much it bled. It felt like it wouldn't stop, when Omid came in, he ran over to help get the girl off her. But it didn't work. He got shot in the process.

Clem killed the girl in absolute fury, stabbing her multiple times in the stomach. She remembered how much Christa cried, and she remembered how much blood was on her hands. How much blood is still on her hands.

"I'm by myself!" She heard Christa cry out from the trees. _This can't be good_ , Clementine thought to herself, she wasn't going to let her friend get killed. Clementine sucked in as much air as she could and got up running.

A little ways away from the camp, Christa was being surrounded by bandits, three of them. All men. Clem's stomach dropped as she quickly observed the new arrivals. Their clothes tattered, their hair messy, their faces dirty and covered in scars.

"God damn it! Where's your group?" One of the men asked, annoyed. He had long greasy brown hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. He also had a spear covered in multi-colored rags clutched in his right hand.

Another man stepped forward, dark-skinned with a large scar on his left cheek, his brown eyes glowing in the shadow of his hood. He pulled a gun out of his jean's and aimed it at Christa. This made Clementine's blood boil.

"Cut the s**t lady!" He yells at her, "Where's your group!?" "Let's just get her back to camp, we can interrogate her there."

They walked closer to Christa, slowly approaching their prey. "Stay away from me!" Christa screamed, backing up. The whole conversation was making Clementine sick. Clem thought quickly and picked up a rock by her shoe.

She threw it at Ponytail, "What the f**k!?" He yelled, searching the area. They began running around in circles trying to find out where the rock came from. The diversion let Christa get away, Clementine then set off running, maneuvering through bushes and trees as she went.

The sounds of the angry bandits were right behind her, she quickened her pace. A pair of strong arms abruptly wrapped around her, violently. She fought back against the force.

"STAY STILL YOU LITTLE B***H!" Ponytail yelled in her ear, he placed a hand over her mouth to shut her up, but Clementine bit down on it as hard as she could. Blood squirted from his thumb, the metallic taste filled her mouth.

Her lips puckered from the sour aftertaste, it almost made her gag, but she kept bitting down. The man screamed in pain and let her go, Clem ripped off his right thumb. She could feel the raw meat in her mouth.

Veins from the thumb started to get stuck in-between her teeth, the nail made it's way to the font of her mouth and she spat it out like it was poison. The rest of the thumb managed to get down her throat, unwillingly.

She felt nauseous, but right now wasn't the time to barf up everything you've eaten. She continued running, a hand clutching her queasy stomach. Ponytail was still following her, he was clutching his bleeding nub tightly.

Pain and anger were present in his dark eyes, he began to catch up with her, she was at a disadvantage currently. Walkers then began to show up to the s**t show. _Great,_ Clem thought to herself.

Ponytail then tackled her to the ground with a thud, "GET OFF ME!" Clementine screamed while tying to break free from the man's grip. The man continued to hold her down, walkers then started to emerge from the tree line.

The man was too busy holding Clementine down to notice the walker coming straight at him. The walker held onto his back and ripped out his neck, Clementine could feel the hot blood running down her back.

The man loosened his grip and Clementine wiggled out. The walker ripped open his neck even more, devouring arteries and heaps of blood. Blood clogged up Ponytail's throat, making him suffocate in his own fluids. The dark matter drenched his teeth, the smell lingering off the corpses was like a pesticide, it made Clementine flee.

Blood was pumping vigorously through her veins, Christa was probably long gone. Chased away by the other bandits, Clem was on her own now. The other bandits were out there, searching for them, just because one is dead doesn't mean she's 'clear'.

Clementine kept running, but after a few minutes, she stopped dead in her tracks. Just ahead of her was a clearing in the tree's, past that was a rocky cliff leading into a stream. The water was rapidly flowing, the current was strong, but Clementine didn't have anywhere else to go. The drop was a bit large, it could kill.

Clem took a deep breath and made a dash for it, flying through the cold air, it felt like she was in slow motion, but that didn't last for long. She hit the water as hard as she thought she would, hard as concrete. Hard as death.

* * *

She let out a irritated groan. Her eyelids slowly fluttered open and she was blinded by sunlight. She willed her eyes to adjust as she squinted toward the light. At first everything was a giant blur, but the longer she stared, the more realistic her surroundings got.

She laid on the shore of a stream, her legs drenched in the cold water. The trees and shrubs around her were a different breed then the ones where the bandits attacked. She was alone, out in the middle of nowhere, lost. She pulled herself off the ground and got into a wobbly standing position.

She held her arms out for a second for balance. "Dammit," She muttered, but then started kicking at the rocks in the sand, "F**k!" She had a temper, that much was true.

A small path from the stream led into the trees, Clementine took a deep, relaxing, breath and followed it. _It might lead to somewhere,_ Clementine thought to herself.

* * *

Hunger.

It's like an animal trapped inside of you. Clem didn't get the chance to eat when the bandits attacked. It's been around two full days since she was able to eat. She grabbed at her stomach constantly, it was like she was trying to calm the gnawing beast inside.

Each step felt like she was burning a thousand calories and then 'Sam' started barking at somewhere off in the trees. Sam was a dog that Clem found a little ways down the path, he looked similar to a golden retriever, but Clem had no clue.

She didn't really care, he just followed her. His footsteps beside her annoyed her a bit, but it was something she could live with. She didn't want another mouth to feed, but this dog didn't look like he was going to just walk away.

His small blue tag reflected against the rays of the sun that managed to make their way through the dense trees. He looked like he was starving even more than Clem, his ribs and other bones were easy to see through his thin and tight skin.

He continued to bark at something off in the trees, it was starting to get on Clem's nerves. "Okay! I'll check it out! Just shut up!" She snarls at him, the dog whimpers and Clem wears a smile of satisfaction.

She painfully walked toward the area. A small run down camp was there, empty soup cans littered the ground throughout the camp. The tents were ripped to shreds and the smell of rot floated in the air. Clem's nose scrunched up in disgust.

Her eyes widened as she spots an unopened can sitting by a large bin. She walks over and picks it up, but as soon as the can is in her hand, a walker lunges at her from the other side of the bin.

It pins her to the ground, she pushes her sore muscles to the limit. "GET OFF!" She screams, the walker finally looses it's grip on the teenager. She takes this advantage and stands up quickly. She stomps on it's head, over and over again. Bits of the brain stick to her shoe and the skull caved in on itself.

It looked like she dipped half of her leg in red paint. She took her foot out of what was left of it's head and glared at the body, "F**k you." She says and then spits on the corpse.

She takes a seat on a nearby log and roughly ripped open the top of the can and dug in. Beans. Clem was never a big fan of beans, but it was better than starving to death.

They had a salty aftertaste and made Clem pucker a bit, but she kept eating. Sam then slowly walked over and took a seat in front of the teenager. He starts whimpering and whining. He wants her food.

"Shut. The. F**k. Up." She says with her teeth grinding together. She was loosing her temper with this dog. She didn't care if he didn't like the way she survived out here.

The whimpers suddenly turned into growls and Sam lunged at the teenager, knocking her to the ground. His teeth sank into her arm. Pain flowed in her blood, but she wouldn't scream.

She threw punches and kicks at the dog, but the more she hit him, his anger intensified. She sent one hard kick his way and he went flying behind the log.

Clem stood up and wore the same satisfied smile on her face, "Come at me again, I dare you." She muttered angrily. She walked around the log and to her surprise, Sam was impaled on some sharp spikes.

Blood drooled from his mouth and it pooled around his suffering body. She could of just put him out of his misery, let him go to better place.

But she left him to rot.

* * *

She couldn't go on for any longer. Her eyelids got heavy and her vision blurred. She was loosing too much blood. Sam got her good, a large bite on her arm bled to what seemed like no end.

Darkness was creeping into her vision slowly, her legs were getting heavy as well, and the pain in her arm wasn't dying down. It was only growing.

Suddenly, she lost her balance and fell to the floor with a thud. She hasn't been this vulnerable in years. She never wanted anyone to see her as weak. She would cringe at the thought of it.

She couldn't move, her eyes slowly closing, she couldn't control it. It seemed like she was paralyzed, the last thing she felt before her eyes shut were strong arms picking her up and carrying her off into the unknown.

Ringing was constant in her ears. It felt as if she had ben put in some type of ancient torture device, nails slowly driving into her skull from all directions.

She could hear things, words, she concentrated and tried to listen in.

"She's bit man! Why did we even bring her with us!?" The voice was closer, a man, he was carrying her.

"I'm not gonna leave a defenseless girl out here to die! And how do we even know if it's a lurker or not?" This voice was a little further away, a older man.

Clem couldn't speak up or say anything, her mouth refused to budge. For now, it seemed like she was trapped in her own body. She felt the mans grip on her tighten.

"This is a mistake, do you have any idea how much s**t Rebecca will give us for this?" The man holding Clementine spoke again.

"Rebecca ain't going to change my mind, I'm not afraid of a pregnant woman, Luke." The older man retorted.

"Nick ain't gonna like this either, not after what happened-" "You don't have to remind me of that boy!" The older man snaps at him, cutting 'Luke' off.

"S-sorry sir."

Clementine wanted to run away from these crazy people, she never liked strangers. These people might kill her, and there she was. Defenseless and weak.

The pain in her arm didn't help anything, it felt as if her skin was being burned off and a thousand bees were stinging it over and over again.

After a few minutes of silence, the older man spoke up.

"Is she awake?"

Luke nudged her, "Hey, you awake?" He whispered. His voice barely audible in Clem's ears. Then, as if it was a cure to a poison, Clementine felt again. Her fingers twitched and her eyes slowly fluttered open, she looked up to see a young man staring right into her eyes.

To Clementine, he was gorgeous. The brunette had some stubble on his chin and above his upper lip. He had chocolate colored eyes and defined cheek bones. This must be Luke.

She had gained more energy and even though the man was incredibly handsome, looks can be deceiving. She didn't trust him, yet.

"I can walk." She mutters, Luke nods and sets her on the ground, she wobbled a bit but was able to regain her balance. The other man stood next to Luke, he looked like a white version of Lee, just a bit shorter.

"I don't suppose you two could help me..It's a dog bite, if you're wondering." She states, she didn't want a conversation with them about how she's 'bitten' or 'not bitten'. You get bit by a walker, and you might as well, sign your death certificate.

"May I see the bite?" The older man asks, holding out a hand. Clementine was hesitant, her arm was covered in scars that haven't healed. And if there was any funny business, they would surely regret it.

Clem slowly rolled up her sleeve and showed the man, he examined it. While that was happening, Luke stepped forward.

"What's your name?"

"I would feel more comfortable if you told me your names first."

"Well, uh, I'm Luke. If you haven't noticed, and the one looking at your arm is Pete. Now, can you tell us your name?" He asked, kindly.

"Clementine."

Luke's eyes widened in surprise, Clem noticed, "What?" She asked. He nervously scratched the back of his head and almost whispered, "It doesn't seem to fit a person like you."

Before Clem could retort, Pete spoke up.

"It more than hell looks like a dog bite, a human jaw couldn't do anything like that."

Clem sighed in relief, "Okay, so now what?" She asked, impatiently. He let go of her arm.

"We get back to the cabin and fix up your arm." Luke states, Pete nods. Clementine slowly rolled her sleeve back down, but Luke saw the bite and scars underneath, his face took a sorrowful expression.

Clem ignored it and turned away from him. Pete led the way, Luke and Clem followed. The entire way to the cabin, Luke didn't take his eyes off her for a second. Clementine had the urge to just ask him why he was looking at her, but right now she didn't want the answer.

About fifty feet away stood a log cabin. Before the apocalypse it might have been a place where people stayed to fish. To Clementine, it looked pretty cozy, and probably big enough to fit about five to ten people.

The trio walked up to the front door and Pete knocked. The door unlocked and opened. A teenage girl stood there, short black hair, red glasses, a grey coat and black pants. _She looks like mini ugly Betty,_ Clementine thought to herself, cruelly.

"Sarah, get your father." Pete says to the girl. She quickly backed up and walked out of sight. The trio walked in and Clementine looked around to get a feel for the place, wood panels, carvings and pictures covered the walls.

Dated living room furniture, and the overall cozy feel. They walked through another door at the end of the entryway, the room was a dated 70's kitchen. Luke led Clem over to a seat by the counter. He took the seat next to her.

Pete quickly left the room and left Clem and Luke alone. A silence hung over the two, they didn't know what to say. Clem didn't face him, and tried to pretend he wasn't there. Yes, he was good to look at, but every time she did look at him, there was a heated bubbly feeling in her chest.

 _Maybe I like him-CLEM! No, you can't,_ Clementine thought to herself, she could feel Luke's eyes staring right into her soul.

But then he spoke.

"Look, I'm sorry that this is happening to ya'. We're gonna fix up your arm."

"And then I can leave?"

"If you want to.." Luke says, he seemed disappointed and a bit upset at her words. Clem didn't say anything back.

The kitchen door opened and out came a man. Spanish, most likely. His black and grey hair was slicked behind his ears. He walked over to Clem with a first aid kit in his hand.

Clementine rolled up her sleeve, again, and placed her arm in the mans hand. "This might hurt." The 'doctor' says. Luke nudged her on the shoulder, "You can hold my hand, if-if you want to."

Clem wanted to say no, but almost without permission, she clutched his hand with her free one. She still didn't face him, her face was probably bright red.

The 'doctor' pulled out a small, grey, bottle of peroxide from the kit. Clementine stiffened. She remembered how much that hurt, how the wound bubbled up and burned.

He held it over her wound. He slowly poured a small portion of it on the bite, Clem didn't move an inch. _Showing pain is showing weakness_ , Clementine thought to herself as she saw the wound bubble up.

The doctor then grabbed a small needle and some thread from the kit, he threaded the needle and quickly rammed it into a part of the wound's ends. Clementine barely even flinched, the doctor raised his eyebrows at her, he's never seen anyone this tough.

But he continued the process. Finally, he cut the thread and tied it. "Luke, I need to check on Sarah, you bandage the wound." The doctor tossed Luke the bandages and left the room with the kit.

Clementine was practically forced to turn around, he let go of her hand and started bandaging the wound. "Now, that was impressive, how the hell were you not screaming at the top of your lungs when the needle pierced your skin?" He asks, jokingly.

"I've done it before.." She says, using her free hand to point to the scar on her cheek. Luke's expression softened and he turned his attention back down to her arm.

She knew what he was going to ask now...

"You've been cutting yourself?" He asks sadly. The only person that really knew about it was Christa, now, almost everyone in this group does. Currently, she felt surprisingly comfortable around him. Even though it felt like his eyes were looking straight into her soul.

She wasn't up for telling him much about it, she hopes he'll understand. "I don't really like to talk about it.."

"Sorry, I just, you're..Nevermind."

"I'm what?"

"Nothing, it's nothing."

He was being a bit suspicious. _Did I do something wrong? He thinks I'm weird. Thats probably it. He maybe saw all the blood on my shoe and felt nothing but absolute fear towards me. Not that I have a problem with that._ Clementine thought to herself.

A silence loomed over the two after that, but then they continued talking about the most random things, she didn't know why she could talk to him, maybe for the same reason he could talk to her. The first thing they knew, he was telling me about his horse, Matias.

He told her that he missed him and that he was the most _amazing horse in the universe._

"If I ever find him again, I could let you ride him. But you have to do it like a real cowboy, none of that sidesaddle stuff." He says, smiling like a manic.

"You mean one leg on each side?" She asked nervously.

"Yeah."

"Can you show me?" She asked again, for the first time in what felt like years, she smiled.

"Sure, If you'd like."

Clementine then couldn't control herself, she was having fun talking to him.

"Teach me to ride like a man." She says smiling just as much as him.

He then began to fake a western accent, "Chew tobacco like a man."

She let out a laugh and followed along with the same accent, "And fight like a man."

 **(A/N: Used a scene from Titanic, I was watching it while writing most of this chapter. Couldn't help it!)**

"I haven't seen you fight, but I've got a feeling you already do." He says returning back to his original southern accent.

"You tryin' to say I'm tough?" She asked, smirking at him. She knew the answer, but she wanted to hear him say it.

"Do I even need to say?"

 _"She could be working with Carver!"_ A voice shouted from the other side of the door. A woman.

Luke finished bandaging her arm minutes ago, but he didn't let go. Clem didn't seem to mind anyways.

 _"Relax, Rebecca."_ This time it was Pete. Clementine was confused, _Who's Carver?_ She thought to herself.

"Luke, who's Carver?" Clementine asked, practically whispering.

"A bad guy, Clem. We're on the run from him, Rebecca probably thinks you have something to do with him." He answers, whispering also.

The yelling calms and the sounds of footsteps were all that remained until they went silent as well. Luke got off his seat and headed over to the kitchen cabinets.

Clem just watched him from her seat, he pulled out a granola bar and tossed it to her. "Figured you might be hungry."

"T-thanks." She stutters, unwrapping the bar. Luke just stares at her, again.

"What're you looking at?" She asked, his hand almost jolted to the back of his head, which he scratched nervously.

He turns his attention away from her and tries to brush the question off like it was never asked.

"You can spend the night here, rest up, have a good nights sleep. If you want, you could stay.." He trails off.

"I'm sorry, but my friend is out there, Christa. I need to find her, but yeah. I'll stay the night. It won't do me any good to go out there wounded."

He looks down sadly, but after a moment, he returns to his regular smile. She had already finished the bar and she raised an eyebrow at him.

 **(A/N: Kinda stole this next scene from NikitaMaynard on Wattpad. I loved it too much!)**

"You can sleep in my bed and tonight I'll sleep on the couch." He says nicely. Clem felt a bit guilty. He brought her here, had the doctor in his group stitch up her arm, he then bandaged it, he gave her food and now he's offering her his bed.

"Nah, I'll sleep on the couch." She says. She stuffed the wrapper into her pocket and hopped off her seat.

"I give you the option of a big, comfy, warm bed and you're saying no?"

"I'm totally fine with sleeping on the couch." She says once again.

"Be prepared to share because that's where I'm f**king sleeping." He says with a cheeky smirk.

"Alright." She replied smartly. His cheeks went bright red, Clem let out a small giggle. "Just sleep in the bed." He says.

She evilly smiles and makes it out the kitchen door to get a spot on the couch. She's laughing like a manic.

"Oh no you don't!" Luke catches up with her, and grabbed Clem. Putting her over his shoulder, she could whoop his a**, but Clem was having fun. No bloody noses this time.

She playfully hit his back over and over again as Luke walked up the creaking cabin stairs to his bedroom, he spotted Nick in the hallway holding a pillow.

Nick raised an eyebrow at them, but Luke ignored it. He tossed her on the bed and quickly shut the door, just incase she was going to put up more of a fight.

Clem let out a sigh of defeat and curled up in the bed, she grabbed one of the pillows and laid her head on it. She took in the scent, pinewood, chocolate and smoke. Her eyelids began to grow heavy and she drifted off.

Luke backed away from the door and walked down the steps to the couch with a huge smile on his face. "Aw come on!"

Nick had made it to the couch before him, he already started snoring. Luke groaned and laid down on the floor. He used his hands as a pillow and tried to adjust in a comfortable position.

And impossibly, he slept.

* * *

 _*Clementine's Dream*_

She's standing in front of a mirror, artificial lights lit up the room. Her face showed no emotion, and her hands were were covered in fresh blood. But she continued to stare into the mirror, at her reflection.

Suddenly, the reflection moved, but the real Clem standing in front of the mirror didn't. It was like she was staring into a portal.

The lights on the other side of the mirror began to flicker and spark, but when they came fully on, she wasn't staring at herself anymore.

There, on the other side, stood a teenage girl. Blonde. Hair tangled and sticking together with dried blood. Her face was covered in layers of more blood and ash.

To Clementine, her eyes were familiar, she knows this girl, but at the same time, she didn't. She crossed her arms over her, bloody, pink dress and smiled psychotically.

On the other side of the mirror, bodies then appeared. Hanging from the ceiling around the girl. The people were hanging from the ceiling by their ankles. The people hanging were: Kenny, Lee, and Christa. Their eyes were gauged out, and even more blood covered their bodies.

Clementine still showed no emotion. The girl's eyes then turned into a glowing, crystal, blue color. She whispered, "It's only a matter of time."

* * *

Clementine's eyes snapped open and she lunged forward, knocking all the sheets and blankets off her. Her breathing was irregular and sweat seeped out of every pore on her face. There was no way she was going back to sleep now.

Then, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw something out of the window. She curiously hobbled over and peeked her head out, the cool breeze hit the beads of sweat on her face, it made her shiver.

In the distance were lights, flashlights. She was able to hear some faint shouting in her sonar-like ears.

People emerged from the trees, coming straight for the cabin.

* * *

 **A/N:** **I actually don't know if I'll stay on this site. I might move to just Wattpad. This site can be a very unfriendly place. Wattpad is a friendly site, I have seen absolutely NO HATE on any story that I've read.**

 **And if this version is not any better than the original, I'lljustdieinaholeforbeingtheworstwriteronthissiteandforspendingallmytimewritingthiss**tybook. Yep, I have absolutely no self confidence for my writing.**

 **I might be accepting ideas for other OC's, but I'll leave it at ONE OC.**

 **Also, I might not update as often and these chapters will be a lot longer than the original's. They can range from 3,000 to 7,000 words. And if people like this remastered story, there will probably be around 50-60 chapters..GAWD DAYUM.**

 **Also, I have a place in the squad!**

 _ **'Why so serious?'**_

 _ **~JOKER OUT!**_


	2. Sparks

The Monsters We've Become

 **Chapter two; Sparks**

Enjoy!

* * *

Two men slowly walked toward the cabin. In the faint moonlight, Clem could see them slip their flashlights back in their pockets.

The taller man put an arm out in front of the shorter one. They were cloaked in black, but their eyes glowed in the darkness.

"Are you fucking kidding me? What if people are in there, huh?" The taller one spat, they stopped right in their tracks and turned to each other.

Clem peeked out just a bit, goosebumps covered Clem's arms and legs, while her blood went deathly cold.

"Well, what do you want to do, dickweed?" **(A/N: Emily Rose FTW!)** The shorter man snarled, they obviously weren't friends.

"What I'm saying is, we should head back to Howe's and search more tomorrow."

"Do you have any idea what he'll do to us if we come back empty handed?"

They bickered and raised their fists high, but before any action could take place, someone walked up to them from the trees.

A man. Greying dark brown hair, probably around his early to mid forties. He looked to be Caucasian-American, he wore a large brown jacket with a fur collar. Something in his eyes made Clem shiver on the inside.

He had dark intentions. She could see straight through his eyes and into his soul. Nothing but evil and blackness.

The two other men took their hoods off in one quick motion. The bandits. The ones that attacked her and Christa. Anger burned inside of Clem like a bonfire.

She wanted to scream. Run at them. Take them down. Kill them even. Send a knife into their skin and twirl it around, watch them scream.

"Did you find them?" The stranger asked the bandits, his voice was scratchy and deep, it made the hairs on Clem's neck stand up.

"No.." The bigger one of the two bandits answered. Clem watched the rage fill the stranger's face.

"You're fucking useless! Both of you!" The stranger spat at the bandits.

"Carver, please, calm down. We should head back to camp and look for them in the morning. "

The shorter stranger said. Carver. Clem remembered Luke saying something about him, he said his group was on the run from him. And that pregnant lady, she sounded scared of him.

"Calm?! I'll show you calm!" Carver said, his arm jolted to his pocket and he pulled out a pistol. He aimed it at the shorter bandit and before he could make a run for it, was shot in the head.

The gunshot probably rang out for miles, blood and bits of brain blew out from the wound. It sprayed all over the side of the cabin like spray paint.

The shorter bandit's eyes rolled back into his head. He was dead. The taller bandit tried to make a run for it and made it about ten feet before getting shot, right in the back.

He landed in a bunch of weeds, crushing them. Blood soaked his jacket and pooled around his body.

"Leave him to the lurkers.." Clem heard Carver say before walking back into the dark forest.

Clem was now aware of why the Cabin Group was afraid of him. He's a psycho.

A crank. That's what Clem called most psycho people. She picked up the habit after she met Chuck. Crazy old man.

She could hear the still living bandit's painful groans from the window, and without hesitation, she made a dash for the door.

As she pushed it open, her bitten arm pressed against the oak wood and pain surged in her veins.

If she thought the pain before was tough, this was like four times worse, all smashed into a coil of pain right into her arm. And spreading through the rest of her body.

She quickly walked down the creaking stairs and to the front door, Luke was up and clutching his machete in his hand tightly. Nick was up and rubbing his eyes on the couch.

Luke saw her in the corner of his eye and ran over to her, asking her countless numbers of questions, but she kept walking forward. Ignoring every single on of them.

She stomped out the front door and over to the only 'living' bandit. She didn't want to go after Caver, or even go anywhere near him. Dead leaves and branches crunched underneath Clem's leathered combat boots.

Clem kneeled by the bandit and roughly yanked him and made him face her. His eyes showed absolute fear and his breaths became raspy.

Blood slivered out of the corners of his mouth and down his chin. She looked him dead in the eyes and snarled, "You were in the woods with Christa. Where is she?"

He only managed to cough up more blood and attempted to keep his eyelids from shutting.

"You better not have hurt her, tell me. Tell me."

She could hear Luke approaching her, but she wanted answers. She wants them now. He croaked. His eyes glazed over and began to turn into that milky white color.

"Damnit." Clementine muttered. She pulled out a knife from her pocket and sent it flying into he bandit's skull, keeping him from reanimating. She swiped the knife from the kitchen while Luke was getting her a granola bar.

Luke yanked the knife out of her hand and placed it in his pocket...He didn't trust her around knives..Especially after..

"Clem, who is he?"

Clementine stood up and turned to Luke. Nick was making his was out the door with a rifle clutched in his right hand.

"I told you that my friend and I were attacked by bandits, right? Well, these two people who got shot and died here, are the bandits! I just.. I just wanted to know if he knew were Christa was.."

"Wait-you shot them?!"

"No! Don't be stupid. You can blame Carver for that."

His eyes went wide with shock, "Yep, the bandits called him 'Carver', so I figured that your friend was the one responsible for this..They tried to run, but he shot them both."

"Oh no no no, okay, we gotta go. We have to go, now." He begins to stomp back to the cabin, but Clem stops him.

"When are you going to fucking explain about him? Why are you on the run from him? Yeah, I get he's a psycho, but what did you and your group do to piss him off?!"

Nick walked up to the scene and glared at Clem, Luke tried to stutter a response, but Nick cut him off.

"Why the hell do you care!? You're going to leave anyways, so, just shut up or leave. Right. Now."

A fire had already started in Clem, but Nick was just adding fuel to the flame. "Hey, maybe I might stay with your stupid group or I could just punch you in the fucking face."

Nick scowled and his eyes filled with darkness. Luke stepped in before anyone could end up with a black eye or a bloody nose. "Nick, shut it. We have to get out of here. We need to get the group up and moving, the gunshots probably woke em' up. Clem, all you need to know for now is that Carver is a extremely dangerous man."

His eyes darted between the two before heading back to the cabin. He slipped his machete back into it's holster and walked inside. Clem shot Nick a sharp glare and followed Luke.

Luke walked up the stairs and knocked on the first door to his left. A woman answered and Luke explained what happened. She could hear her gasp behind the oak wood.

Clem walked up the stairs and down the hallway to the first door on her..Right! She knocked and pushed the door open without asking if anyone was in there.

A teenager sat on a floral, pink, bed with a book in her hands. Her eyes shot up at Clementine and she quickly pushed the book underneath the covers. She looked guilty.

Clem raised an eyebrow and stared at the girl, she let herself in. It was the same girl that opened the door for her, Pete, and Luke. She adjusted her red glasses nervously and hopped out of the bed.

"What were you reading?" Clementine asked, Sarah's eyes filled with fear and she stuttered an answer.

"Fi-fity shades of grey..I found it in Nick's bedroom, please, please don't tell my dad!"

Clem could take advantage of this, but right now wasn't the time to be making deals.

"Alright then, I might ask for something in return, I gotta warn you about that. Tell me your name."

"S-sarah."

"Okay, _Sarah,_ I suggest you pack up. Only bring stuff thats going to be useful."

"Where are we going?"

"I have no idea, you'll have to ask Luke. Well, I can tell you one thing, the boogie man is coming after you." Clem said, smiling evilly at the girl, she whimpered and shook.

Clem let out a satisfied laugh and placed her hand on the door, before leaving, she turned to the terrified kid.

"Name's Clementine, by the way."

Clem was pretty much an asshole, only a few people in her life managed to get past her hard shell. Luke managed to get past it just by staring at her.

The thing is, Clem could be the biggest bitch in the universe one second and then the most caring, wonderful, person the next.

* _The group got packed up and moved out that night, Luke led the Cabin Group forward, while Clem just stayed in the back. 'They' were heading for the mountains up north, they hoped to loose Carver there..*_

The group had been walking for hours, it was quite boring to Clementine. Tree after tree, nothing special, ever.

No one talked, just walked. Clem walked in the back, alone. She sighed and looked up from her feet to see Luke leading the group.

Over the few hours, she's already gotten used to calling them her 'group'. Clem remembered the talk they had yesterday, how much she smiled, how much she laughed..How she was happy..

Clem was attracted to Luke, but at the same time, she wanted to stay as far away from him as possible. In her mind, she made up the fact that showing affection was showing weakness.

She wanted to cut. She wanted a knife, she wanted to hurt herself. She wanted to feel something. She shook her head violently and tried to clear the thoughts.

They had been walking the entire day. The sun was starting to go down and Clem's legs were growing sore. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw 'The pregnant woman' slow down to walk next to her.

"I don't really know you, haven't talked to you till now. Didn't want to because, well..I thought you were with Carver. But, I was wrong."

Clementine mentally accepted the apology, "I never caught your name."

"Rebecca, I guess you're Clementine." She said smiling at the girl, Clem cracked a smile.

A short silence loomed over them and Rebecca broke it, "I've been trying to think of Baby names. Any ideas?"

This surprised Clem, out of all the people she could be asking, she's asking Clem. The girl that just arrived, the girl that's a stranger.

"If it's a girl..how about Riley?"

"Riley? Why Riley?" The older woman asked curiously, smiling at her.

"Well, back in the day, before all of this, I had a friend named Riley. I just like the name." **(A/N: OC!)**

"Is she no longer with us?"

"I-I..I don't know. She meant a lot to me, I guess the reason I haven't broke down crying about it is because I still have hope that she's out there. I just hope that she's okay."

"Well, if she is still out there, I hope you find her again."

"Thanks, Rebecca."

Rebecca nodded and sped up to walk next to her husband, probably. A big black guy with glasses.

"I think we should set up camp here!" Luke called out from the front. Clem looked around the area, they were surrounded by dense trees and a small creak was about a hundred feet away.

"Everyone get settled." The doctor man said as he set down his heavy backpack and pulled out his sleeping bag.

The big black guy laid out a sleeping bag for him and Rebecca. Clem unpacked her sleeping bag and couldn't help but notice Luke was staring at her.

Clem brushed it off and slipped into her sleeping bag. Pete walked over into the center of the 'gathering' of sleeping bags and started making a fire.

Once the flame started and glowed in the darkness, Pete backed up and got settled in his sleeping bag, which was by Nick.

Clem figured it out on her own that Pete was Nick's uncle, and she knew that Nick cared for him, but never showed it.

Clem let out a sad sigh, she didn't have a family. No one knew her from before... Luke walked over to Clem and started setting up his sleeping bag next to her.

The sleeping bag was colder on the inside more than the outside. _Pretty fucking cold_ , Clementine thought to herself. She started to shiver and tried to get warm.

The rest of the group was already out, sleeping soundly. Clementine noticed Luke rubbing his hands together to create friction. Warmth.

He notice her looking. "We used to be in Carver's group."

This took Clem by surprise. But she let him continue, eager to hear more.

"We saw what his camp was starting to turn into. Labour, forced human labour. It wasn't safe for Rebecca to be there, it wasn't safe for anyone to be there. So, we ran."

"But why is Carver still after you? He should've given up."

"You can ask Rebecca about it, I'm not going to get in the middle of it."

...Shit...

Clementine spoke up, and Luke's attention immediately turned to her.

"You told me some of your story, I guess It's my turn to spill."

Luke looked _intrigued._

"I was only fifteen when all this shit started happening. My neighborhood was filled with walkers, my parents tried barricading the house, but that didn't work. They were eaten alive right in front of me. I went from group to group, everyone was dying around me. If Christa ain't alive, than I'm the only one left."

As Clem finished, Luke gave her the most sorrowful expression, he truly felt sorry for her. Compared to what happened to her, his life was a picnic.

Clem let out a small, tired, yawn and slowly shut her heavy eyelids.

"Night Luke."

"Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."

"I'm so gonna kill you.."

* * *

Clementine's Dream

 _Clementine was frozen, she couldn't move. It was like a thousand invisible hands held her in place._

 _She was in a forest. A dark one with an eerie atmosphere, fog hovered over the ground and swarmed past Clem's unmoving feet._

 _A woman screamed, running though bushes and then finally stopping about ten feet away from Clementine. Christa._

 _She wanted to scream and yell with happiness, but not a single word left her mouth._

 _Christa tried to approach Clem, but something from behind knocked her down to the ground. The girl. The girl from her nightmare._

 _She slipped out a knife from her sleeve and pinned Christa to the ground._

 _"Anniversary time."_

 _The girl sent the knife flying into Christa's chest. Blood splattering and spraying everywhere. Over and over again._

 _Over and over again._

* * *

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed! Make sure to review! 

_Why so serious?_

 _-JOKER OUT_


	3. The Girl in The Field

The Monsters We've Become

 **Chapter three; The Girl in The** **Field**

Enjoy!

* * *

She woke to a blinding light - she knew it was the sun. Even as she clenched her eyes shut again, her eyes still burned. She heard a voice, more like a whisper. She couldn't understand a word.

Too light, it was impossible for her to decipher. She heard leaves blowing around in a breeze. Footsteps then followed.

Shoes stepping in hard dirt, and getting louder. Someone was here. A shadow crossed her eyes, someone was hovering over her.

Clementine's eyes strained and opened. A teenage girl was staring down at her, blonde, pieces of her hair bushing against Clem's cheeks.

Big round eyes, a small button nose and long eyelashes. The girl was pretty. Probably even prettier if her face wasn't covered in ash and blood.

But realization swarmed Clem's head. She was the one in her nightmares. Just like in her nightmares, she felt a bit of deja vu'. Before Clem could get a word out, the girl began to giggle and laugh darkly.

"It's me!" She yelled before running off into the unknown, Clementine wasn't letting her get away. She got out of her sleeping bag and ran after her.

They ran endlessly, the teenager seemed to always be a step ahead of Clem. No matter how many shortcuts through the dense trees she took, the teenager was always ahead of her.

The teenager's laughing echoed all around Clem, firing straight into her ears and making her cringe.

Then teenager ran into a wall of bushes and shrubs, her bloody pink dress danced behind her. Clementine was going too fast to stop, she ran straight into the bushes.

She felt the sharp branches ripping at her clothing, a quick slash of pain on her arm shot throughout her body.

She came to the end, expecting to see the girl again, but instead she was back at camp. Back where everyone was still asleep.

She just followed the girl in a complete circle. _Where is she?_ Clementine thought to herself, spinning around and taking in her surroundings.

"Fuck.." Clementine muttered and began cursing even more under her breath.

"She isn't real, it's just your imagination.." This calmed Clem down a bit, but it sounded like she was just trying to convince herself.

She managed to get out a small irritated sigh as she saw Nick sprawled out in his sleeping bag, snoring loudly. Pete slept next to him with a pillow covering his ears.

The flame that barely kept them warm was out and the air was crisp, but it wasn't as bad as it was last night.

Luke bagan to stir, his eyes opened slowly, he rubbed them and looked over to where Clem was sleeping.

His face filled with panic and his eyes darted around everywhere until finally landing on Clem. She could barely hear him sigh with relief.

"Morning." He said, he probably expected her to say something back, but she remained silent. She couldn't bring herself to say anything.

"You..Okay?" He asked, tilting his head, staring at her.

"I'm fine."

"Then prove it."

She turned to him and looked him dead in the eyes, and tried to put on the best 'okay' expression.

"Luke, I am fine. I just got up to stretch my legs."

He nods and sits on his sleeping bag, not taking his eyes off her for a second.

"Nick is sorry about yelling at you."

"Yeah? Well, I ain't sorry for yelling at him."

Clementine walked over and took a seat on her sleeping bag. Luke huffed and rubbed his hands together.

"Nick can be an asshole at times, I've known him ever since I was a kid. Wanted to start a business with him, I was a stupid teenager."

Clem let out a small laugh, "I bet you were." He laughed along with her. But she stopped, _He's gonna make you weak!_ _Do you want to be weak? No, you don't!_ Clementine thought to herself.

Everything went silent, Luke tried to begin a conversation, but Clem remained silent. Luke got the hint that she didn't want to talk, his eyes showed disappointment, but she just kept thinking about she couldn't be weak. Over and over again.

Over and over again.

* * *

*A FEW HOURS LATER*

"Lets stop up here!" Luke called out from the front, informing everyone. Clementine looked to the front, past the other members, and saw a small clearing in the trees.

They all walked over and examined the perimeter. Clear. Alvin(The big black dude) helped Rebecca sit down on a small wooden log and sat down next to her, making it a bit wobbly.

Luke walked over to a large boulder even further ahead and climbed up, sitting on the top and putting on his binoculars. He scanned the area like a sonar.

"Whatcha' see?" Alvin asked from his log Luke. Luke took a brief second before answering, "There's a ski resort or a lodge on that big hill up there, there's a old bridge we could use to get over there."

Luke then tossed Carlos(The doctor man) the binoculars and hopped off the boulder, his feet impacting with the ground with a thud.

"How about Clem and I scoot across that bridge low and slow, see if it's alright, and if things get hairy, we'll head back. Sounds like a plan?" Luke announced, Clem was about to interrupt, but Luke lightly grabbed her arm and began to lead her away.

Carlos glared at Luke, "Clem should stay, she's-" "She's what?" Luke cut Carlos off, irritated. Carlos sighed in defeat and crossed his arms.

"Come on Clem, let's go."

They walked toward the bridge on a dilapidated, old, walking path. The sun managed to get it's light through the shrubbery, it shone on Luke's hair. Making it a golden color.

"Did I do something wrong?" He asked out of nowhere.

"What do you mean?"

His eyes darted at her for a second and then back on the path in front of them.

"Just..I mean, you haven't been talking as much. You strayed away, why? Did I say something that made you feel uncomfortable-"

"No, Luke, it ain't you. It's me. The thing is, what I'm worried about is..Well.."

"What? What is it?"

"If I get too close to someone and they die...I won't be the same person.."

Before Luke could answer, Clementine sped up her pace. She didn't want to discuss it anymore, but Luke wanted to continue.

In his eyes, he looked hurt. And Clem felt guilty for it.

"You're worried about getting too close to me?"

"Luke, leave it!"

"No, you're worried about getting close to me, so, you're gonna be a silent loner?"

Now he hit a nerve, Clem spun around to face him.

"Everyone around me fucking dies!"

"So you think I'm gonna die?"

"No-it's..."

 _No, it's because anyone who tries to take care of me or who I have a liking to, dies. They always die. I'm the reason why they die._

"It's what?"

Clem stopped directly in her path to see two walkers by the entrance of the bridge. One leaning on a rock and the other standing. Clem didn't have a weapon, but she didn't think she'd need one.

The one standing wobbled around and groaned, the other couldn't move and was stuck to the ground like glue.

Luke crouched behind a small boulder to strategize, but Clem knew what she was going to do.

"Can't shoot em'-hey, where're you going!" He whispered, Clem ignored it and headed straight for the standing walker.

The walker turned to Clem and snarled, she kicked it in the leg and it fell to the ground with a thud. Clem raised her foot above it's head and stomped on it till it was dead.

She looked like she had walked into a sea of blood and flesh, the walker's blood only managing to get to Clem's knees.

Clem turned to Luke, he looked pretty pissed. And he forgot about the sitting walker, which was trying to grab his leg. Clem walked over and yanked Luke's machete from his hand, "What-"

He was cut off when the machete went straight into the walker's head, spattering blood across his chest. Realization filled his face and his mouth made an 'O' shape.

Clem managed to get out a small laugh and walked ahead, toward the bridge. They made it to the center of the bridge and, surprise surprise, more walkers. They came in both directions, Luke walked in the center of the bridge and the wood began to pop and crack.

And snap. Luke fell through. Immediate panic shot through Clem's veins, "LUKE?!"

She ran over and kneeled by the hole, Luke was alive. He held onto two support beams for dear life. Relief filled her face. Clem tried reaching for him but Luke quickly looked up.

"Clem, watch out!" Luke yelled at her, a walker was coming straight at her. Luke's machete laid by her feet and she quickly picked it up and slashed at the walker, decapitating it.

Clem smiled in satisfaction, sweat dripped from her chin, her muscles began to grow sore, but her determination overpowered that.

The head rolled off the bridge and into the water below. Another walker lunged at her, she grabbed it by the lapels of it's rotting jacket and shoved him toward the side of the bridge, throwing him off.

Clem let out a sigh of relief and walked back over to 'the hole'. "Clem, you okay?!" Luke called out desperately. His eyes darted around and then filled with relief once he spotted her.

She kneeled down by the hole and held out a hand, he grasped it tightly and she used all that she left to pull him up. She groaned in pain and got him up.

"Thanks-" "You idiot!" Clem screamed, _he could of died. And he's just here thanking me?!_

She raised her fist and sent in straight into Luke's chest, he let out a grunt of pain and clutched it tightly.

"You could have died!" Clem yelled at him again, her eyes stung with tears, but she refused to let them fall.

"Well, I didn't!"

"What if you did!? Huh?! What if you died!? I can't loose anyone else, Luke! I can't!" Luke abruptly wrapped his strong arms around her, enveloping her in a much needed hug. He put his face in the crook of her neck and kept whispering the same thing.

"I'm sorry..I'm sorry."

This was the first time Clementine hugged someone in years, it felt..Unnatural. But something in her system enjoyed it and wanted her to hold on.

She hugged back. She could feel his hot breaths on his neck, each one sent a wave of pleasure throughout her body.

 _You're already too close to him, the only thing you can do now is make sure he doesn't die_ , Clementine thought to herself, she pulled away from the embrace and handed Luke his machete.

He took it and slid it back into it's holster. He began to bite down on his lip, like it was candy or something.

"Don't do that agin." Clem said, unamused. Luke ran a hand over his chest, "Cross my heart." Clem nodded and made her way down the bridge.

Luke ran up next to her and tried to match her pace, she tried to just focus on whats dead ahead.

Luke's eyes kept darting over to Clem, he looked happy-ish. Well, Clem did just punch him in the chest. It's gotta hurt, but he got a hug out of that. Maybe it was worth it.

Luke stopped in his tracks, which stopped Clem, and pointed to the end of the bridge. "You see him?" Luke asked.

Up ahead was a figure holding a rifle. Male. Black jacket with a hood, grey pants, sneakers and jet black hair slicked back behind his ears.

Luke leaned over and whispered in Clem's ears. "You do the talking."

"What!? Why me?" Clementine whispered back, confused.

"Do you really think he'd shoot a girl?"

"I would." The truth hurt. Luke hid the shock behind his chocolate eyes.

"I'll shoot him first if it comes to that." His hand hovering over his gun.

"Hello!?" The man called out, waving at the duo. Clem was suspicious of the man's eagerness to meet them, still knowing that Carver was out there.

"Are you guys assholes? You don't look like assholes." The man asked, approaching them.

"I'm not an asshole." Clementine states, Luke turns to her with a huge grin on his face.

"You calling me an asshole?"

Clem doesn't crack a smile, she's still pretty pissed. Luke sighs in disappointment, he tried to make her smile, and failed. Miserably.

The man chuckled, "Are you guys passing through? Or are there more of your guys and you're just scouting?"

"We're scouting for our group because this guy," Clem pointed at Luke, "Is an idiot."

Luke narrowed his eyes and 'fake' glared at Clem. The man chuckled again, Clem continued, "Were there more people passing through?"

"Yeah, tons, why?"

"Was there ever a woman named Christa?"

"Maybe-I don't know, sorry, it's just a lot of people pass through here, I can't remember everyone." He gives her a sentimental look and she mutters silently, "Damn it."

The man plays it off and tries to get her to forget about it, it seemed pretty upsetting. He could see it in her eyes. "My group and I have plenty of food in that lodge up there."

The man points to the lodge on the hill, "I'm sure we can give some to your group." He wears a friendly smile, but Luke wasn't buying it.

"Thats awful nice of ya', whats the catch?"

"No catch, We got plenty." The man said, smiling proudly, "If your group wants..to-what the fuck man?!"

From behind Luke and Clem, Nick ran up with his rifle pointed at the stranger. The man/stranger aimed his rifle back at him.

Anger boiled in Clem's blood, as if on top of a stove. Her eyes darkened and she stepped in from of the stranger, blocking Nick. His eyes narrowed, "Clem, get out of the way!"

"No! How about you drop the fucking gun, Nick!"

He didn't even argue, just placed the gun by his feet, he looked...scared? Scared of a girl with pigtails, and a few years younger than him.

His eyes were wide and he trembled. The stranger didn't argue as well, just lowered his gun as Nick did.

Luke's attention snapped toward Nick, he stormed over, his teeth grinding together in fury. His fists clenched tightly by his sides.

"You could have shot Clem, you idiot!" He was outraged. Clem was getting tired of his bickering, "Luke, stop! Let's just get the rest of the group off this damn bridge!"

Luke gave Nick a quick death glare and nodded, agreeing.

Nick stomped back down the bridge, _he's gonna get a_ _mouthful from Pete_ Clem thought to herself.

The stranger turned to them and stuttered, "O-okay then, just..Please don't let that 'Nick' guy be around me with a gun."

"He won't, I promise."

In this distance was Nick's fading form by the beginning of the bridge, and in seconds he was gone and into the trees.

"Lets just get to the ski lodge." Luke said, annoyed. The stranger nodded and led the duo forward.

Clem walked side by side with Luke, he knew she was mad at him, but he couldn't help but stare at her.

He kept staring at her beautiful features, her olive skin glistened in sunlight, and her amber eyes looked wolf-like.

It would make sense. There was only a slim strand of hair that managed to make it out of her tight pigtails and in front of her eyes. Luke had the urge to brush it out of the way, but held back.

Clementine, really wanted to stop calling the dude she just met _the stranger_. In her life, there was already a person that had that name.

Her mind wandered to that sick man. He kidnaped her and tried to murder Lee.

She didn't regret it. She didn't regret shooting him. He took her away from Lee, and all this time she didn't know what he really wanted from her.

Lee knew. But he refused to tell her. He followed her all the way to Savannah.

She didn't even know what was so special about her in the first place, she kept telling herself to forget about him, but she couldn't.

There was still many mysteries that weren't solved. And she would find herself constantly asking questions, but never finding an answer.

She sighed and looked back up from her feet, "So, what's your name?" She asked as politely as she could.

"Matthew. And you two are?"

Clementine looked him straight in the eyes and took a huge risk in saying their names, but he looked trustworthy.

"Well, I'm Clementine and this 'idiot' is Luke." Matthew chuckled, Luke glared at her and let out a small chuckle as well.

"Would you stop calling me that?"

"Nope." He let out a irritated huff and folded his arms.

"So, the fruit and the idiot, seems cool to me."

Then the laughing was directed to Clem. Luke began 'dying' at the words of little fruit, Clem put on her best death glare. Luke. Wouldn't. Stop. Laughing.

"It's not that funny." Clem then folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. Luke tired to catch his breath and muttered, " _Little fruit_."

"I'm so gonna kill you, _idiot_."

* * *

 **A/N: Hope you all enjoyed! Make sure to review!**

 ** _Why so serious?_**

 ** _-JOKER OUT_**


	4. Ring Around The Rosie

The Monsters We've Become

 **Chapter Four; Ring Around The Rosie.**

Enjoy!

* * *

Clementine, Matthew and Luke finally made it up the steep hill and to the lodge.

To Clementine, the place looked secure and safe.

Most of the windows in the front were boarded up, but through the tiny spaces between the wood, light peeked out.

Clementine was still cooling off after the whole incident with Luke about to die, she didn't talk to him the entire way up.

Luke just kept his mouth shut, but now, his lips became 'unglued'.

Clementine leaned on a wooden railing looking out from the lodge, to the hill, and then to the bridge.

She let out sigh and tired to relax.

There was so many things going on around her, so many questions, but of course, no answers.

Luke slowly walked over and leaned on the railing as well, he sneaked a few glances at her before he spoke.

"Look, I know, I'm a huge idiot. I'm sorry, are we good?"

He held his hand out for a handshake, she looked at him hesitantly and shook his hand violently.

She let go and he grunted in pain.

She smiled in satisfaction, "Well, I guess apology accepted, Idiot." He cracked a smile at her.

"Well, 'little fruit', I'll try not to fall in any more holes," She laughed and he placed a hand on his growling stomach, "I'm starving."

"Tell me about it."

Matthew turned to them with a huge ass grin on his face, "Well, as I said, we have plenty of food. Walter is probably making more peaches and beans."

 _Beans. It had to be beans,_ Clementine thought to herself.

She glanced up at Luke, she truly cared about him.

It was strange because she only met him around two days ago, but it felt like she's known him all her life.

She seemed to get lost in his chocolate eyes, she was already too close to him.

There was no going back, but all she could do was make sure he didn't do anything stupid or die.

There was always a cost to getting too close to someone, but Clementine was willing to risk it.

Maybe it was safe for her to tell him more about her past, it couldn't really hurt anyone now.

The front doors opened with a large creak. A slightly overweight man exited. Facial hair, striped sweater and jeans.

"We have more people passing through?" The man asked happily, smiling at Matthew.

"Their group is still making their way up." Matthew said, he pointed to the hill and wore a warm smile on his face as well.

It worried Clem how people could be this nice and happy. In a way, they reminded her of the St. Johns.

The cannibals who owned a dairy farm back in Macon.

Looks could be deceiving.

The day still haunted her, she unknowingly ate some of one of her own people.

Lee wasn't able to get to her in time to stop her from taking a bite.

Sometimes, she forgot that Lee was dead.

She waits for him, waits for him to help her or hug her or just ask her how her day was, but of course, he died.

Lee was dead and Clementine was extremely suicidal. She would take out a knife, or some sort of blade, and cut.

But shedding blood and feeling sorry for yourself won't help you. It never will.

She kept a serious expression on her face, eyeing the two men suspiciously.

The rest of the group finally arrived and rushed in front of Clementine, blocking her view of the two men.

Nick raised his rifle, ready to shoot. "Nick, put the fucking gun down!" Clementine yelled, but her words were overlapped by everyone else's.

Clementine stood on her toes to get a look up front, she saw two more people exit the lodge, but the tops of their heads was all she could see.

All of them were speaking at once.

"Are you here to rob us?"

"Get the fuck out of here!"

"We don't wan't to harm nobody!"

"Do I look like a fucking robber to you?"

All the arguing added more fuel to the fire that was burning inside of Clementine.

She needed to get to the front, she pushed pass the others, Sarah accidentally elbowed her in the stomach.

She let out a quick grunt of pain and sent a sharp glare Sarah's way.

Sarah whimpered in fear. "Listen everyone we don't mean any harm, just lower your guns-" "Fuck that!" A voice shouted back at Luke.

A very familiar one. _It can't be,_ Clementine thought to herself.

She pushed past Nick and made it to the front. The world seemed to stop.

It was Kenny.

She reached a point just a few feet from him. She looked straight into his eyes, he lowered his gun.

But the short and almost overpowering thrill of seeing Kenny alive was soon cut short, replaced by confusion and pain.

He looked older, wrinkles more visible and defined around his forehead and under his left eye.

He wore a pretty masculine beard, his originally black hair was greying rapidly. He still wore his hat, it was covered in stains and rips.

Just seeing him made her think of Lee, it sent surges out pain in her head. But overall, she was completely confused.

 _How is he alive?_ Clementine thought to herself. Lee told her that he was dead, trapped in a alley with walkers coming at him.

She saw so many things in his eyes.

Sorrow, sadness, pain, quilt, happiness, recognition and shock swirled around in his dark brown eyes.

"Holy shit." Clementine managed to get out through shock, but it was just a whisper. His mouth formed an 'O' shape and his eyes widened. "C-Clementine?"

"Wait, you know this girl?"

"Who is she?"

"Clem, who is he?"

Clementine couldn't control her actions, she lunged at him and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a tight hug.

He held onto her even tighter, she feared he might disappear. He was the only one, except Christa, that knew Lee.

He was his best friend, or pal, as he would say.

She could feel his prickly beard poking at her neck. He pulled away from the embrace and smiled genuinely.

"I take that as a yes." Clem heard Matthew say. Kenny looked at her group and then back at her.

"Are these people with you?"

Clem nodded and smiled.

"Alright, everyone inside! It's dark out." He announced, he gestured for the group to follow him into the lodge. As Kenny walked beside Clem, Luke couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.

Kenny held the door open for Clem, like a gentleman. Once inside, she took a second to take in everything.

The lodge had a similar style to the cabin, but the lodge was decked head to toe in Christmas lights and decor.

In the corner of the large open area was a huge Christmas tree covered in ornaments. Fireplaces were scattered around, the sounds of roaring fires and light classical music echoed throughout the lodge.

To Clementine, it was pretty awesome. Kenny walked ahead of her and mouthed the words, _Tada!_

Clementine snickered. The fatter man walked up beside Kenny and started going on about the lodge.

"We hope you like it here-" Clementine lost her attention to him when Kenny started making fun of him behind his back. Clementine giggled a bit. It felt unusual to her, especially because just a few days ago, she couldn't laugh.

She didn't have it in her...but now..She could. Something changed between then.. _Is it the group? Is it Kenny? Is it Luke?_ Clementine thought to herself.

"What's so funny?" The man asked, eyes darting between Kenny and Clem.

"Oh, nothing Walt. This here is Walter, one smart son of bitch and makes a mean can of beans too." Kenny said, introducing him. Kenny patted him on the back and smiled at her.

"Which I have to get back to." Walter said quickly, excusing himself and walking away.

"You guys can leave your stuff here." Matthew announced from behind, he walked over to a few small benches by the doorway and put his rifle down.

"The hell we will." Rebecca states, annoyed. _You're kidding me, right?_

Nick butts in, "Tell him to put his gun down." Nick sends his glare over to Kenny, which angered Clementine.

"Will you vouch for these people, Clem?" Kenny asked. Everyones attention was on Clem, their stares penetrating the back of her head.

"They're good people, Kenny. Just, " Clementine turned to Rebecca and Nick, "some of them aren't good with first impressions." Clementine announced, she heard the sighs of relief from her group.

Kenny nodded and walked over to the benches and placed his gun down. Clementine followed, then the rest of the group.

Sarah's eyes lit up with happiness at the sight of the Christmas tree. A huge smile grew on her face and she turned to her dad.

"Look, daddy, a Christmas tree!" Sarah yelled, jumpy and excited.

Everyone started spreading out in the lodge, Luke walked away but before he left, he tossed Clem a smile.

Kenny gestured for Clem to follow him over to sitting area in front of a large fireplace. _It's time to talk._

"Come on Clem, let's catch up." Kenny said, sitting on the small leathered couch.

Kenny and Clem didn't really talk much in the old group, but she liked him. She thought he was a good guy, even after he crushed Larry's head in with a salt lick.

Lee sided with him, it was for the best, but it was a gruesome kill, but Clementine didn't look away like Lee told her to.

"Still wearing this dirty old thing?" Kenny said jokingly while tipping the brim of Clementine's hat.

"Heck yeah." She siad, looking back up at him, smiling like a manic.

"You know, I was half expecting Lee to walk up next to ya'. You both were like two peas in a pod." Clementine felt her heart sink. Just the mention of Lee's name, coming from him, made her flinch.

She wasn't quite over his death yet. His eyes softened once he saw the sadness spread over her face.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry, it's just hard not to think about him, you know?" Kenny apologized. Clementine continued, might as well get it over with.

"He saved me from that psycho that was following us. It's just...He should have left me. I really do need to talk about him more often, to get over it. I haven't even told my group yet. If he didn't save me, he would still be alive."

"Don't say that, Lee loved you. He made a choice, he said that he would protect you till the end, and that is what he did." Kenny said sternly.

Clementine could see tears forming in Kenny's eyes, but there weren't any forming in hers. She hasn't cried in years, and she didn't want to break that streak. And, she couldn't be weak. Not again. Not ever.

"Lee cared about you too." Kenny raised an eyebrow.

"No homo." She quickly added. **(A/N: Okay, I have** **absolutely nothing against homosexuals, alright? Just putting that out there. That line was just for the lols XD)**

Kenny tried to hold back a small laugh, but to no prevail. A large, warm, smile formed on his face, which caused Clementine to break out into a small laughter.

The laughter subsided and Clem proceeded to ask some questions.

"Okay, can you explain to me how you're alive? Lee told me you were dead."

"Well, It tried to save that fucking shitbird Ben. Turned into a damn cluster, couldn't help the kid, but I got out."

In his eyes, he looked a bit guilty, but Clem brushed it off. A small silence hung over them, but Kenny spoke.

"So, how old are you now? Last time I saw you, you were only fifteen."

"I'm eighteen and soon, I'll be turning nineteen." Clementine answered, Kenny nodded.

"Kenny, I need help moving boxes." Walter stated, walking up to where the two were sitting.

"Sure thing, hey, sorry Clem. We'll take more at dinner." Kenny said, getting up and following Walter outside the lodge.

Clem sat there. Alone. Staring into the fire. The golden flames. They burned her eyes but she kept staring.

 _Carver will be on us soon. We need to leave soon, but, wait, Kenny mentioned a storm..That might buy us time, we could stay here while it's going about, but I can't just leave Kenny and I can't leave my group. But..I'm kinda leaning towards staying with Kenny._ Clementine thought to herself.

 _No, just stop! I'll cross that bridge when I get there._ Clementine got up from the couch and looked around. Sarah was with that other woman by the Christmas tree, Pete was sitting by the lunch tables with a book, Alvin, Rebecca, and Carlos were talking by the benches. Luke got up from where he was sitting and walked up the stairs to the bedrooms.

She followed him, but was stopped when she saw what Pete was reading. She moved closer to get a better look at the book, but Pete noticed and moved the book under the table, looking quite quilty.

Clem raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Let me guess, Fifty Shades of Grey?" She asked, Pete nodded and put the book back on the table.

"Well, don't let Nick catch you with that." She said, walking away, but as she got to the first step on the stairs, she glanced behind her to see Pete. He looked like he was going to explode with laughter.

Clementine walked up the stairs and headed in Luke's direction. At the end of the hall was a sliding glass door leading out to a small balcony. Clementine could see him through the glass. He was leaning against the wooden railing, looking out into space.

Luke wasn't aware that Clementine was sneakily approaching him. She was just a few feet away, Luke started to hum a sweet tune, but it was about to be interrupted by a certain someone.

Clementine was close enough that her lips were right next to his ear. She quickly took a breath and shouted in his ear, "BOO!"

"AHH!" He yelled and almost fell off the side of the balcony, but Clementine grabbed him by the shirt. He turned to her and glared.

She snickered and took a spot on the balcony next to him. The glare turned into a friendly smile.

"Good one. I'll try that on you one of these days." Luke said, Clementine remembered that she might not be leaving with Luke, after all, she was leaning on staying with Kenny. The happiness on her face washed away.

"Are you coming with us?" He asked sadly, his eyes were pleading, by seeing them, she wanted to go with him. Kenny's and Luke's eyes were hypnotic.

"I don't know, I can't just leave Kenny." Clementine was in a tight position, a war raged in her head. The pros and cons of each choice dueling it out inside.

"Who is Kenny? Who is he to you?" He asked, a little upset and.. _Jealous? Aww, Luke is jealous!_ Clementine wanted to mess with him about it, but now wasn't a great time. She didn't really tell him much about her past, but now, it was time to spill.

"Well, I guess I'm gonna have to start from the beginning, ain't I? When shit started hitting the fan, where I lived, my parents tried to barricade the house, but..that didn't work. They got in. I watched them get ripped apart right in front of me."

Clementine went through it all, Lee, then Kenny, the group, the stranger, how he kidnapped her, how Lee saved her and died in the process, then finally Christa and Omid.

As she finished, Luke moved his hands down the railing and placed it on top of hers. The kind gesture made a smile creep up onto Clem's face.

Clementine looked up to the sky. She didn't want to talk about leaving or her past anymore, Luke took the hint and stared up at the sky as well.

"I remember when Nick and I were kids, we used to go camping and the nights would be the same as these. Even after the world goes to shit, some things stay the same."

"Were you ever attacked by bears?" Clementine asked, tying to lighten the mood a bit more.

"Yep, there was this one time where this huge grizzly bear came into our camp. Nick was having his call of nature when he showed up. Pete and I locked ourselves in the RV while Nick was out there with his pants down. Nick ran back into the outhouse, we could hear his girly screams when the bear started sniffing it." Luke said, chuckling at the end.

Clementine couldn't help but laugh as well. The thought of Nick screaming like a girl made it even funnier.

"I've only been camping once, with my friend Riley." Clementine said, Luke looked at her, wanting the rest of the story.

"Riley said she was going camping, so, she invited me to come with her. Turns out, it was just me and her, alone in the middle of the woods. I spent most of the time worrying about bears and wolves eating us alive. Lucky we made it back in one piece." Clementine said, smiling at the memory. Luke smiled at her.

"Well, you didn't have the same childhood I had." He said proudly.

"Is that supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing?" Clementine smirked at him, he laughed.

"I had a pretty fun childhood, when class was over, Nick and I would head down to the city and jump rooftops, and if we were lucky, we could get some shitty alcohol."

"Wait-you started drinking when you were a kid?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Man, you're worse than I thought." Clementine said, giggling. Luke put a hand over his stomach, it growled a bit.

"Damn, I'm hungry."

"We all are, fatass." Clementine said smirking at him. Laughing hysterically.

"What-You just called me a fatass!" Luke exclaims, putting on his best fake glare.

"Yes I did, fatass."

"You little-" Luke lunged at her, attacking her with a series of tickles. Clementine curled up into a tight ball on the floor. She couldn't stop the giggles from leaving her mouth. She tried to get him off, but no use.

"S-stop! Please!"

"Take back what you said!"

"NEVER!"

Luke sat right on Clem's chest, keeping her from going anywhere. Clem managed to get a hold on his arms, which kept the tickles from coming. She was there breathless, just staring into his eyes, getting lost in them.

Luke began to lean down towards her face, Clementine wanted to close the space between them, her eyes fluttered shut.

Suddenly, the glass doors opened and out comes Nick to ruin the moment.

He smirked and folded his arms.

"I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?" He asked, Luke pulls back and shade of pink forms on his face.

"Well, dinners on the table, you two can snog after." Nick walks away, laughing his ass off. Clementine could feel herself blushing.

Luke got off her, embarrassed, and helped her up like a gentleman. Clem wanted to make it just a bit less awkward, so, before she could exit through the glass doors, she turned to Luke.

"You're still a fatass."

* * *

Dinner was a living hell. They served peaches and beans. Clementine managed to hold back a few gags. Kenny babbled about a place up north called 'Wellington'. To Nick, it sounded like a bust.

But, the dead are walking about, Clementine was willing to believe anything. The storm would hit in a day or two, Kenny offered Clem's group to stay while the storm was on them, they accepted. Even though Luke wasn't so sure about it.

And there Clementine was, walking down a hallway to her room. She stepped inside and quietly closed the door behind her.

She threw off her shoes, hat, and jacket. She pressed her feet on the cold hardwood floors and shivered. The room smelled of coconut air freshener.

She took a whiff of it and her nose scrunched up in disgust, she jumped into bed, snuggling into the blankets and pillows. She glanced up at the window by the dresser, the moonlight shown through the glass and onto the floor.

She got lost staring at the stars, and eventually fell into a deep sleep.

 _*Clementine's dream*_

 _She was standing in a forest. Alone and in the dark. She could feel cool air running through her hair and in-between her fingers. She rotated in a small circle, trying to get a feel for what was around her._

 _But something caught her eye. The Girl in the Field was standing just a few feet away from her. Her hair covered her face, long and tangled and riddled with dried blood._

 _But through the strands, she could see her eyes. Bright blue, more of a_ _glowing crystal color. She stood there, her hands turned into fists and she looked up at Clem._

 _A few strands moved out of her face and Clem was able to see her twisted smile. She began to laugh darkly, Clem didn't move an inch._

 _The Girl in the Field began to dance around a nearby tree, skipping and singing. Her haunting words echoed through the trees._

 _"Ring around the Rosie!_

 _Pockets full of posies!_

 _Ashes, Ashes,_

 _We. All. Fall. down."_

 _She giggled a bit when finishing and turned back around to face Clementine._

 _"You remember me, don't you? Clemmy Clue!"_

 _She pointed behind Clementine, Clem hesitantly turned around...A head laid on the floor. Blood coloring the white snow. Clementine had to cover her mouth to keep from screaming._

 _It was Christa._

* * *

A/N: *Mic Drop*

Hope you all enjoyed, make sure to review!

 _Why so serious?_

 _-JOKER OUT!_

 _We. All. Fall. Down. :)_


	5. The Friend and The Killer

The Monsters We've Become

 **Chapter five; The friend and The killer**

Enjoy!

* * *

Clementine woke up screaming, but she quickly calmed herself, she clutched the sides of her head and tried to relax.

Her breathing was rapid and sweat covered her face.

The door swung open, Luke stood in the doorway. Concern all over his face, he was about head over to her.

"No, it's just a dream..I'm sorry." She said, still breathless, she looked up at him.

"Yeah, I get them too." He said, he slowly walked back and was about to close the door, "Goodnight."

"Luke," He stopped immediately, "Can you stay with me?"

She could practically see a tint of happiness in his eyes, he walked over.

"Yeah."

He climbed into bed to hold her until she fell asleep. He placed his chin on the top of her head and her head rested against his chest. She felt safe, in his arms. Guarding each other from the darkness around.

 **(A/N: HG FTW!)**

* * *

Luke laid awake in bed with the soft sound of Clementine breathing, he looked down at her face. He wanted to see those beautiful wolf-like eyes again, but he let her sleep. She needed it.

Luke was told last night that he needed to go out on a run with Nick before the storm hit. He and Nick needed to get medicine for Rebecca, she could be giving birth any day now, but Luke didn't want to leave the warmth of the bed to go trotting out in the cold.

He especially didn't want to leave Clem, Kenny wanted Clem to go with Nick and Luke, but Luke didn't like the sound of it.

Luke tried to sneak out of bed, he tried to carefully remove Clem's head from his chest without waking her up. But her eyes fluttered open.

She rubbed her eyes and looked up at him, "You're leaving, aren't you?" Clem said, a bit disappointed, it felt like Luke had been stabbed in the chest as those words left her mouth.

"Clem, I've got to go, I need to head out on a run-" "Then let me come with you." She said, interrupting him and forcing herself out of the bed.

"Clem, you should just stay here, where it's safe." Luke said as she began to lace up her shoes, she sent a sharp glare his way. He did NOT just say that.

"Luke, can you hear yourself? I can take care of myself and I'm coming with you wether you like it or not." She grabbed her hat from on top of her dresser and plopped it on her head.

Clementine just didn't want Luke out of her sight, especially with Carver out there, and she would like a chance to stretch her legs.

Luke sighed and headed out the door, Clementine smirked and followed him.

ONE HOUR LATER

The trio had finally reached their destination, it might be a bit stupid sending just three people out on a run while a crazy dude was out there, but the others back at the lodge were busy, they all had something to do.

Kenny said there was a small town a little ways away, and here they were.

"Now, remember, everything helps." Luke said as they crossed the town square.

"Does that include a couple of walkers?" Nick asked, jokingly.

"Shut up, Nick. You know what I mean. Alright, Nick, you head down to the pharmacy. Clem, see if you can find some fresh clothes at the department store. I'll head over to the gun smith." Luke said, eyes darting between Clem and Nick.

"Do you really think splitting up is a good idea?" Nick asked, folding his arms.

"Hey, if anything gets hairy, just holler." Luke said, Clementine nodded and began walking away from the two.

"Alright, I'm off, seeya around." Clementine said, Luke sent her a look saying, _be careful._

Clementine walked down the dilapidated streets, there were a few patches of snow here and there, but tonight the town was gonna get covered.

She glanced behind her for a quick second to see the fading figures of Luke and Nick. Clem wanted to get out of that store as quickly as possible. The backpack she was wearing bounced up and down on her back as she walked.

She walked a little further down the street and stopped at her destination, which was an abandoned Walmart.

 _Nice, I might get some killer deals here!_ She thought sarcastically. She forced open the, used to be, automatic doors and walked inside. The place looked like it already had been looted, but it couldn't hurt to take a look.

There was about ten walkers blocking the entrance to the clothes department. _I think I can take them, actually._ They were all spaced out and Clem had a pretty good hatchet with her.

 _Lets do this_. Clem pulled her hatchet out of her backpack and slowly approached one of the walkers. The walker didn't notice she was there, it just groaned and hobbled around.

Clem raised her hatchet and took a deep breath, she sent it flying into the walker's skull. Bits of the brain slivered out of the wound, in seconds, the walker hit the ground with a thud, dead.

The other walkers turned to her and made their way over to her.

"Shit." She muttered, she swung her hatchet at one of them, which caused it's head to fall off and drown in a pool of it's own blood.

A walker grabbed her and tackled her to the ground. She wasn't afraid, she's been in these situations before, and she's survived worse. She kept pushing it's head away from her neck, she used her free arm to get a hold of the hatchet.

She got a grip on it swung it at the walker's head, blood splattered onto her face, she pushed the corpse off her. Her eyes darted to the seven walkers coming straight at her.

Before she could react, the head of an axe went straight through the cranium of one of the walker. The corpse fell to the ground to reveal a figure behind it. The figure went out to kill the other walkers, Clem was in a bit of shock for a single moment and then went out to kill the walkers.

Clementine and the stranger started slaying the rest of the walking dead. 4..3..2..1, all the walkers were dead. Their bodies bleeding out on the floor, coloring the laminate red.

Clementine turned to the figure. It was a girl, but a mask covered her face. She was around two inches taller than Clem, pretty tall. Probably around Luke's height.

"Clem?" She asked, Clementine's blood turned cold as her name left her mouth. Her words are shaking, uneasy, like she didn't believe what she just said. In one quick motion, the girl took of the mask.

Riley.

She'd expected after all the years that they'd been apart, she would've looked different. But Riley looked like the same old Riley. Clem expected her clothes to be ratty and torn.

She expected her dark brown hair to be greasy and tangled. But instead she wore fresh clothes; her hair was clean was past her shoulders. Nothing marred the pale skin on hr face or arms.

She looked just as pretty as she did before the apocalypse. Boys were attracted to her like moths to a light. Clem saw recognition in her eyes, her large green eyes glowed and added a softer feel to her face.

"Clem, you're al-" Riley was cut off by Clem tightly hugging her, which she returned. Clementine just held onto her, afraid they were going to separate again.

Riley was Clem's best friend, they were always there for each other, always doing something stupid together. Clementine was still forcing herself to believe that Riley was here. Holding onto her. Alive.

Clem had just found Kenny, and now Riley? Who was going to show up next? Lilly?

Clementine pulled away and smiled genuinely at her friend, Riley wore a smile as well.

"Damn, it's been a hell of a long time since I've seen you." She said, and then Clementine jumped right into asking questions.

"Where have you been?" Clem asked, "Everywhere after our neighborhood got attacked."

"Alone?"

Riley's face dropped at the question, she glanced down at the floor for a second and then back at Clementine. For a second, Clem regretted asking the question.

"Yeah.." Riley said, her voice trailing off, "I'm sorry." Clementine said a second later. Riley washed away the sorrow on her face and her heart warming smile creeped up on her face.

"It's fine, Clem, I can manage on my own."

"You still got that pocket knife?" Clem asked, trying to lighten the mood. Riley always carried around a swiss army knife, if she lost one, she would save up money or pickpocket some idiot to get the knife.

She couldn't go anywhere without it. Riley moved her hand down to her pocket and pulled out a shinny, red, swiss army knife.

"Hell yeah! I see you still got your old-ass hat." Riley exclaimed, "Shut up." Clementine muttered, Riley snickered.

"So, what are you doing here? I mean, I'm glad you're here and all, but why come here?" Riley slipped her knife back into her pocket and focused all her attention on Clem.

"I'm out on a run with a few others." Clementine answered, Riley turned to her and smirked.

"What're you looking for?"

"Ah, just fresh clothes, the others are out for medicine and weapons." Clementine answered, again.

"Alright Clem, let's go shopping."

The duo made their way through the store, weapons drawn, checking every section for anything that could be useful.

"Keep your eyes peeled for biters." Riley said, Clementine scoffed.

"Please, I can handle the walkers, you call them biters, huh?"

"Just a few minutes ago you were about to get eaten alive by ten of them, and yeah, I call them biters."

Clementine threw an irritated glance Riley's way, "Jerk." Clementine muttered.

"Bitch." Riley said a second later, Clementine missed her, she missed talking to her. Riley always had a comeback.

Riley turned into a different section and picked up two bags of sour candy off the floor. Unopened.

"Nice!" Clementine said, her eyes lighting up with excitement. They felt like they were kids again, like the world around them wasn't full of the dead.

Clementine grabbed one of the bags and quickly opened it. Clem looked over at Riley to see her devouring the candy. If her eating habits were a movie, they'd be rated R for violence.

Clementine laughed at the sight and started to eat her own candy. To her, it wasn't so sour, more sweet. Riley stuffed the rest of the candy in her pocket.

"Come on, let's get some clothes." Riley said, grabbing Clem's hand and leading her into the clothes department.

On the top shelf in the woman's clothes department were some tiny baby clothes, Clem reached up and grabbed them. They had little star designs on them. They were pretty cute, and Clementine knew that Alvin and Rebecca would love them.

"There's a baby in your group?" Riley asked from behind.

"Going to be." Clementine answered and stuffed the clothes in her backpack.

"Okay then."

"So, did you find anything?" Clementine inquired.

"I found some black pants and a leather jacket that might fit ya'." Riley pointed over to the woman's section and smirked.

 _I look pretty damn fine in black_ Clementine thought to herself.

"You look like a ninja." Riley said as Clementine put on the jacket.

"Thanks." Clem said, sarcastically. Riley snickered and looked around. There were things that Clem needed to warn her about, if Riley was to become apart of Clem's life again, she needed to warn her about Carver .

"Riley, my group is on the run, we're trying to get away from this crazy fucker."

"Carver." Riley said a second later, "How do you-" "I might've stole some stuff from him, his group was too slow to catch me though." Riley said with a faint smirk on her face.

Clementine looked back at her, a bit shocked. _Riley knew Carver?_ _Or at least the stuff she stole was his._

"Did he hurt you? I swear to god I'll knock his fucking teeth out-" "Riley, chill! He's actually never seen me, it's my group that he's after." Clem said, cutting her friend off.

About a minute of silence passed, Clementine shoved some extra clothes into her bag and flung it on her back.

"Hey, the storms gonna hit soon, we should find your group." Riley announced from out of the silence. Clementine turned to her and smiled.

"Yeah, good idea. Do you want to come with us?" Clementine asked, uneasy. Maybe after all those years apart Riley didn't want to be apart of Clem's life again.

"Only if you want me too." Riley answered, folding her arms. _Wait, what? Of course I want her to come along_.

"Of course I want to to come along, you're my best friend-" Riley interrupted her,"No chick flick moments."

She snickered and Clem put her hands on her hips. "Hey, you're the one who always says cheesy shit." Clementine said, fake glaring at her.

"That's just my thing. Corny stuff is my calling, come on, you like it? Don't you?"

The run wasn't a complete failure, Riley and Clem found some useful items. Three match boxes, two pairs of jeans that might fit Luke or Nick, more baby clothes, a pack of protein bars, and new clothes for Clem.

Clementine wondered how Luke and Nick would react to Riley, or how Riley would react to Luke and Nick.

Riley slung her backpack across her shoulder and held her axe in her hand. It was covered in blood, made her look like a serial killer. Clementine's hatchet could use a bit of sharpening, but otherwise it was okay.

The duo headed for the entrance, but Riley stopped right in her path and held onto Clementine's arm. Clementine raised her eyebrow, but Riley looked ready to run.

"Oh shit.." Riley muttered, Clementine faced what she was looking at, a wave of walkers were coming straight for them. Groaning and snarling, moving past anything in their way.

"Run..RUN!"

They ran like hell. Clementine knew they had the advantage-the walkers were half broken, riddled with injury. Surely wouldn't able to keep up. But the thought that even more walkers might be here, maybe even waiting for them up ahead..

Riley pulled up and turned right, grabbing Clem's arm to drag her along. She stumbled the first steps, got her feet under her, pushed herself back up to full speed.

The ran down even more isles but finally stopped when they came to a set of stairs, which led to the manager's office.

"IT'S A DEAD END!" Clem called out, but Riley dragged her up the stairs. They couldn't leave from the main entrance. A army of the dead stood by it, and behind them were too many walkers to handle.

"NO IT'S NOT!" Riley called back. She pushed open the office door with some force and it flew open. The office was covered in dust, the wood on the walls were rotting and the corners of the room were filled with darkness.

A single skylight lit up the center of the room. As soon as Clem stepped in, Riley slammed the door behind her. She pushed against it to keep it from opening, the walkers on the other side were pounding their fists against the wood. Eventually, they would get in.

Clem knew what to do, she gripped the edges of a large desk pressed up to one the walls, she pulled on it and moved it over to the door. Riley helped her barricade the door, but the walkers breaking the old wood.

They were trapped in the room, Clementine didn't want to go out like that.

"Clem, help me up." Riley said and stood underneath the skylight, she was right. The room wasn't a dead end.

Clem gave Riley a leg up and Riley knocked open the skylight. Some glass fell to the ground and cut them. A shard of glass slashed Clem's cheek and another cut Riley's leg.

Blood colored the area around the wound on Riley's leg, but she kept her position. Didn't even look like she noticed it. _Riley was one tough son of bitch, always has been,_ Clementine thought to herself.

Riley pushed open the skylight and clambered onto the roof. Clementine wondered about how much she was trusting Riley. She'd put her life in her hands. Yeah, Riley might be a old friend, but she could be different. She didn't seem different, but looks can be deceiving.

But she didn't see what other options she had, especially now. But all of that faded when Riley reached down for Clem's hand. Relief flooded her system.

"COME ON!" Riley called down, the walkers pushed the desk out of the way and came straight for Clem. Clem gripped Riley's hand, and pushed herself off the ground.

Walkers began grabbing Clem's legs and tried to pull her back down, to viciously eat her alive. Riley kept her grip on Clem's hand, putting everything she had into it.

"I'M NOT LETTING GO!" Riley yelled and burst of energy filled her blood, she wasn't about to lose her friend. Especially one that she just got back. Riley yanked her up and over the side of the skylight. They laid on the top of the roof, panting, full of exhaustion.

"You...Fucking...Idiot.."Clementine siad, under her breath. Riley managed to laugh and slap Clem on the shoulder.

"Saved your ass, didn't I?"

After a second of resting and returning back to normal breathing levels, Riley got into a wobbly standing position and helped Clem up. Clem looked down at Riley's wound. Her eyes widened.

"Riley-oh my god-we need to get back to the group. You're gonna get an infection-" "CLEM! I'm fine, we need to get out of because of the storm, not my leg, OKAY?"

The cut on Clem's cheek stung and burned, but she's felt worse, way worse. A large slit in Riley's jeans reveled a gooey, red, bloody slash. Like someone just destroyed a dam, except with Riley's skin as the dam and blood as the water.

Riley's face didn't show any pain, except there was a tint of it in her eyes. She hid pain pretty well.

"Let's just go, we'll fix you up back at the lodge." Clementine said, she wrapped her arm around Riley's shoulders and helped her stand. Just because she wasn't showing any pain to wound didn't mean it didn't damage her.

Riley and Clem limped over to the fire escape and slowly made their way down. Finally, they made it to the bottom and stumbled to the center of the town. Where Clem was going to meet Luke and Nick.

Clementine was thankful that they both got out okay. She was thankful that Riley was the same ole Riley. Loyal and humorous and badass and cheesy, the list could go on forever.

In the distance, two figures stood at the center of the town. As Riley and Clem got closer, the figure's defining features came into view. Two farm boys, one tall, one shorter. One wearing at black shirt, the other wearing a orange one.

They ran over to Riley and Clem. Around them, snowflakes began to fall from the sky. They needed to get out of there, fast. Soon, the town would be covered in snow.

"This town is gonna be covered, we need to get out of here, I'll explain later!" Clementine yelled, Luke and Nick got the message. Luke's eyes were filled with worry, an eagerness to talk, but he was robbed from that.

They made for the trees, Clem and Riley falling behind, but Riley took whatever energy she had to run. And she did. They all did. The trees were so dense that the snowflakes were just hitting and staying on their leaves, not making it to the ground.

There was a clear path to the lodge from there, all they needed to do was follow it. Clem still had her arm over Riley's shoulder, Luke and Nick were bringing up the front. After a few minutes of intense running, they slowed down.

"I think we're good." Nick announced, Clem looked around and nodded.

"Yeah." Luke said, agreeing. Luke glanced behind himself and at Riley and Clem, he slowed down to walk next to them. Luke threw a concerned Clem's way.

"Clem, you okay?" Luke asked to the side of her. He always worried about her, it kinda got on Clem's nerves sometimes, but it was cute.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just some glass cut my cheek." Clem answered, she winced a bit whenever she moved her face.

"We'll get that fixed up when we get back."

Luke then turned to Riley, "Who are you?" He asked, thankfully not being threatening, Nick turned his attention to her as well.

"You wanna explain to your friends, Clem?" Riley asked, smirking at her. Clem sighed and smacked Riley on the shoulder, playfully though.

"Fine. Luke, Nick, this is my friend Riley. Old friend. Before the apocalypse. So, if either of you point a gun in her face about Caver, I'll kill you." Clem said, glaring right at Nick. He sighed angrily.

"I remember you saying something about her." Luke said, looking back at Clem, smiling.

"Gee thanks, Clem." Riley said, sarcastically. Clem snickered and got a better look at her friend. Well, she wasn't gonna get used to her seeing her around for awhile. It kinda upset Clem about how she got used to her not being there.

A few flakes of snow stuck to the strands of her hair, she looked like some sort of goddess. Back in the day, guys were all over her. They always had some cheesy pickup line, and she always had a comeback.

Her fascinating green eyes glowed, and her skin was pretty pale, but it brought out a darker color to her lips. Clem was actually kinda surprised about how Nick or even Luke weren't all over her. She wouldn't blame them.

"Do you have a group?" Nick asked, his icy blue eyes stared right into Riley's.

"No, but I was hoping I could join yours.." Riley answered, slightly disappointed.

Clem budded in,"She's joining us, like it or not, Nick."

"Fine." Nick said in annoyance. After a short silence, Riley spoke up.

"Hey, Clem, can I talk to you? Alone?"

Luke got the hint and sped up to walk next to Nick, they went on and on about something random, while Clem and Riley slowed down their pace, away from the boys.

"If it helps, I did come back." She said. Clem was struck with confusion, she narrowed her eyes at her.

"Wait-what?"

"After our neighborhood got attacked, and before I was all alone, I went to find you. I headed over to your place and I saw..your parents being ripped apart by those biters. I thought you were dead-" "But I'm not. It's okay, we're all gonna be just fine." Clem said, cutting her off and smiling at her.

In school, Riley was always known as a badass, the girl that never cries, but her family was very close to her. And by family, it meant Clem. Clem was really all she had. Her parents didn't care for her, hell, if she even killed someone they wouldn't move an inch.

Clem tried to imagine herself in that position, she would've probably been the biggest, uncaring, bitch to have ever lived. A small smile formed on Riley's face.

"Hey, Clem, is that Luke guy your boyfriend?" Riley asked, smirking devilishly. Clem's cheeks heated up and that strangle bubbly feeling grew in her chest.

"He's not my boyfriend." Clementine stated and tried to get away from the subject as quickly as she could, but Riley continued to tease her.

"Aww, little fruit has a crush on Lukey!"

Clem's cheeks turned bright red. Riley suddenly loosened her grip on Clem, she stumbled a bit, but gained her balance. Clem was about to tighten her grip on her, but Riley interrupted.

"No, I can walk."

Clem nodded. So there Riley was, limping. Hobbling along. Out of the corner of Nick's eye, he noticed Riley was wounded. His eyes trailed down to the rip in her pants from the glass.

"We'll clean it and stitch it up when we get back." Nick insisted.

"Thanks." Riley muttered, Clem sped up her pace to walk next to Luke. He smiled at her.

"Hey." He greeted her, his smile warm and his eyes soft. Clementine tried to start a conversation.

"So, did you and Nick find anything?"

"Well, the pharmacy was completely raided and the gun smith had some pistol bullets, but Nick did find some hardcore moonshine. Ya'll find anything?"

"I found matches, some jeans that might fit you or Nick, baby clothes, protein bars, and if you haven't noticed, new clothes for me."

Clementine gestured to what she was wearing. Black jeans, combat boots, her hat(Of course), and a black leather jacket. Luke leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"You do look pretty badass."

Clementine took it as a compliment and smiled at his words. He chuckled and looked straight ahead.

"The lodge is just up here!" Luke announced, in a few seconds, they'd be out from under the dense trees and into the snow. There was around a foot of it.

The sky was grey and plain, the air was crisp and bit at the survivor's skin. Nick rubbed his arms and made a dash for the cabin.

Luke laughed and chased after him, in the distance, Clem and Riley could hear Nick shouting, "I win!" At Luke by the door to the lodge.

Clem slowed down for the limping Riley and helped her make it across the sea of white snow faster.

They made it to the door and was embraced by the heat of the roaring fireplaces. Classical music hummed throughout the lodge.

Of course, Riley was questioned, heavily. But Clem managed to convince the group that she was alright. And when Carlos began to stitch up her leg, she began taking sips of that moonshine Nick found. When Carlos asked if she alright, she told him to fuck off. **(A/N: Lol, you gotta love Riley XD)**

Luke sat down next to Clem and cleaned and bandaged the wound on her cheek himself, he was eager to do it.

Few minutes later.

The wind outside was howling and the snow covered the windows, the storm was finally on them. Everyone was by the fire, the whole scene looked like something from 'The Day After Tomorrow'.

Luke and Clem were sharing a blanket, which Riley wouldn't stop teasing Clem about. But Clem enjoyed Luke's warmth and closeness. Luke leaned back and savored the moment, everyone was talking and having a laugh by the fire. He wrapped arm around Clem and pulled her closer.

Nick wanted to breakout the moonshine, but now of course wasn't a good time.

"I would really love some music right now." Nick said, speaking up. Kenny looked directly at Clem, his smile friendly and warming.

"Clem can sing, pretty good, actually." Kenny announced, smirking at her.

 _Shit._ She thought to herself. Luke looked at her funny.

"I didn't know you could sing."

She sighed in defeat.

"Fine, I'll sing, but only if Riley sings with me." She declared, Riley glared at her, Clem grinned.

"Jerk." Riley shot at her.

"Bitch." Clem shot back.

 **(A/N: I love making supernatural references)**

Clem's face went hot, there was no getting out now. Clem threw the blanket she had off her and tried to maintain a good posture. She had to pick a song that she and Riley knew.

* * *

 **(I Know Places by, Taylor Swift)**

 **(Clem and Riley)**

 **You stand with your hand on my waistline**

 **It's a scene and we're out here in plain sight**

 **I can here them whisper as we pass by**

 **It's a bad sign, bad sign**

 **Something happens when everybody finds out**

 **See the vultures circling dark** **clouds**

 **Love's a fragile little flame, it could burn out**

 **It could burn out**

 **Cause they got cages, they boxes**

 **And guns**

 **They are the hunters, we are the foxes**

 **And we run**

 **Baby, I know places where we won't be found**

 **And they'll be chasing their tails trying' to track us down**

 **Cause I, I know places we can hide**

 **I know places, I know places**

 **Lights flash and we'll run for the fences**

 **Let them say what they want, we won't hear it**

 **Loose lips sink ships all the damn time**

 **Not this time**

 **Just grab my hand and don't ever drop it**

 **My love**

 **They are the hunters, we are the foxes**

 **And we run**

 **Baby, I know places we won't be found**

 **And they'll be chasing their tails trying' to track us down**

 **Cause I, I know places we can hide**

 **I know places**

 **(Luke joins in)**

 **They take their shots, but we're bulletproof**

 **I know places**

 **And you know for me, it's always you**

 **I know places**

 **(The others join in)**

 **In the dead of night, your eyes so green**

 **I know places**

 **And I know for you, it's always me**

 **I know places**

* * *

After their little sing-a-long, the members of the lodge spilt up. Some headed back up to their rooms, while the rest stayed on the couches, in front of the christmas tree, or in front of the same fireplace.

Clementine got fixed up. She took a long, needed, hot shower and put her new clothes back on. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror, things finally seemed to be going the right way. Maybe everything would actually turn out okay.

She stepped out of the bathroom and walked back overt o the fireplace. Luke took a second to scan every bit of her.

To him, she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his life. She was very _alluring._ He surprised himself by not leaning over to kiss her. She looked fresh and her eyes were the same dazzling wolf-like color they always were.

Clem sat next to Riley and stole a bit of the blanket from her. Riley had her wounded leg propped up on the side of the couch and rested her head by the pillow off to Clem's side.

Luke sat on the floor right next to Clem's feet. He kept glancing up at her now and again, but moved quickly so she wouldn't notice. Nick walked over with a few bottles of that moonshine he found.

He gave a bottle to Luke, he offered one to Clem, but she declined. Luke began to get absolutely wasted.

He still had a bit of his drink sitting in his bottle, but he quickly chugged it down. He looked at Clem, his eyes filled with lust.

"Did I ever tell you that you're beautiful?" He asked, words slurred from the alcohol. Clem could feel that bubbly feeling rise in her chest again. Riley snickered at them.

"Hey, a drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts!" She said and slapped Clem playfully on the shoulder. Now Clem could sense that her cheeks were as red as a rose.

Luke was very flirtatious for the next few hours, eventually he passed out mid conversation. Riley got into a arm wrestle with Nick, he really shouldn't have done that. She was close to breaking his arm.

Clementine sat next to Luke's sleeping form. He looked cute when he was asleep, a few loose stands of his brown hair got in his eyes and Clem leaned over to push them out of the way.

She cared for him, she truly did. She wished she had the nerve to just lean over and kiss him, but her eyelids started to get heavy. And before she could prevent the blackness from taking over her vision, she saw a figure by window.

The Girl in The field stood there, on the other side of the lodge window. Through the frost covered glass, she could she her smiling psychotically. She mouthed out the words:

 _They're already dead._

* * *

A/N: THE MIC HAS BEEN DROPPED PRETTY FREAKING HARD!

Anyways, what do you guys think of Riley? Personally, I love her to death.

Quick thanks to three special people:

Boredom_Overrated(Instagram)

22love126_artist(Instagram)

AND superspartan117!

All amazing people, thanks guys!

 _Why so serious?_

 _-JOKER OUT!_

They're already dead :)


	6. The Deal

**A/N: just a quick note, there are probably gonna be a few spelling and punctuating errors throughout this chapter, I was half asleep while writing it XD. So, yeah, I apologize for that!**

The Monsters We've Become

 **Chapter Six; The Deal**

Enjoy!

* * *

*Clementine's dream*

 _"Oh my darlin'..."_

 _"Oh my darlin'.."_

 _"Oh my darlin', Clementine.."_

A voice sang, but Clementine could tell who the voice belonged to. The demonic echo and the giggly childish laughter followed. The Girl in the Field really loved making Clementine feel creeped out and uncomfortable. Clem had her back pressed up against a wall, some of the rotting wall paper scraping off as she moved along. Trying to hear where the girl was. According to Clementine's sonar ears, it sounded like she was on the other side of the wall.

Maybe waiting for Clementine to make a move. Clementine had never felt so scared, she could feel her head pounding, her heart about to burst out of her chest. Beads of sweat formed on her face and color was starting to leave her skin.

The Girl in the Field seemed to be only a few years younger than her, maybe around fourteen or fifteen. Sixteen at the most.

But when Clementine was running away from her, she noticed something on her arm. A tattoo saying: Subject-B142-935. One of those tattoos that people would get at concentration camps. And something about her eyes didn't seem right, yeah, there are people with really bright blue eyes, but hers were glowing. Literally glowing.

 _"Oh my darlin_ '.."

"I found you." A voice said from the corner of the room, Clementine slowly turned her head to the girl standing in the corner. Clementine let out the breath that she didn't even know she was holding, the fear in her eyes were then replaced with anger, hatred, darkness.

"Who are you!? Tell me!" Clementine screamed as she stomped over to the girl, but as soon as Clementine got within arms reach, she disappeared. Into thin air.

"What the..?" Clementine spun in confusion, her mind racing to so many questions.

 _"You know who I am.."_

Clementine could hear her footsteps, heading towards the door. Again, it felt like a thousand invisible hands were keeping Clementine from moving, or even talking. The door swung open, and the girl stood there. It looked like a bucket of blood had been dumped on her head, she looked like Carrie White, except pretty and not fat.

The girl pulled out something from behind her back and threw it on the floor by Clementine's feet.

Kenny's severed head.

* * *

Surprisingly, Clem didn't wake up screaming, instead, her wolf-like eyes slowly cracked open. The darkness fleeing from her vision. Her head was resting on Luke's chest, hearing the steady thump of his beating heart. Her mind wondered for a moment, _What if the heartbeat stopped?_ She shrugged it off, seeing how it was never going to happen.

At least not on her watch, but she was worried about Kenny, and Christa. They were both killed by The Girl in the Field, in her dreams. She just couldn't get her mind off the plasma dripping out of their mouths and severed necks. On the inside, she was doing everything she could from cringing.

She gripped Luke's chest tighter, needing his comfort. His arms were wrapped around her, but as soon as she tightened her grip, he did too. She, more than ever, needed someone there. She never felt like she needed someone around Lee or Kenny or Christa. No one, except Luke.

She could practically feel him staring at her, at the moment, she felt a bit embarrassed. Probably because only a few days ago she didn't even flinch when Carlos stitched up her arm, and now she's holding onto Luke like there was a monster under the bed.

"Clem..you okay?" Luke asked slowly and tightened his grasp on her, she glanced up at him. She didn't even realize she was shaking, her face tensed up and she bit her lower lip. _What the hell am I supposed to tell him?!_ Clem thought to herself.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Luke." She said and tried to play it off casually, like nothing was wrong. But she can see it in his chocolate brown eyes. He knows she's lying, he knows she isn't 'okay'. Luke moves his free hand toward her face and placed it on her cheek. She leaned into it, it was warm against her cold skin. Luke stared into her eyes and resisted the urge to just lean in and kiss her.

"No, you're not." He said, she could feel him tense as she moved her hand on top of his, she felt as if she was doing something wrong.

"Clem, you've been having nightmares all week, you haven't been eating anything and your skin is pale as hell, and you're always staring off into the distance, and there's nothing there. Clem, you're not okay, and I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure you are." He broadly spoke, the words that left his mouth made Clem a bit scared and a in some ways, happy. He cared about her, but she couldn't tell which way he did. Clem gulped and tried to answer in a way that made her sound sane.

"Luke..My nightmares are torture, and they're not going away. They're just getting worse, and I can't bring myself to do anything else, I can't..."

She looks back up at Luke, he looks straight into her eyes again, but this time, he couldn't control himself. He slowly leaned down to Clem's lips, Clem's eyes fluttered shut and she tilted her head.

And only when they were an inch apart-"Luke! We need help shoveling snow! Get your ass out here!"

"Riley, you in here?" Clem asked from outside Riley's assigned room, she could hear movement inside and wanted to check up on her friend. Clem was about to rap her knuckles on the oak wood again, but the door swung open. There stood Riley, even this early in the morning, she still looked pretty. Her hair was tucked back into a bun and a smudge of black paint was visible on her face. A dark circles were under her large green eyes, looks like someone didn't get their beauty sleep.

Riley had a paint brush clutched in her right hand, which was covered in more black paint. Clem stood in her shadow, considering that Riley was just a couple inches taller than her. Luke's height. Riley looked a bit guilty, Clem took notice of it and folded her arms and tilted her head a bit to the side.

"Riley, what did you do?" Clementine asked, Riley seemed to be in a state of criminality. She scratched the back of her head awkwardly, and then got the black paint on her neck. _Nice move, idiot_ Clementine thought to herself. Maybe she was doing another one of her crazy art projects. Back at their school, Riley was the best artist on campus. She would usually get into graffitiing the pubs down the block. And a lot of the area was covered by murals that she did. Riley the artist.

"Sorry, I found some paint." Riley said and moved out of the way so Clementine could enter her room. All over the walls were painted images made out of a assortment of different colors. Red, blue, yellow, purple, orange and black. One giant mural. Illustrations of people, things, and even walkers. Clementine was gobsmacked, she almost forgot how amazing Riley's art was. Clementine plopped down on her bed and just stared at the images plastered on her walls. Riley took a seat next to her.

"Riley, this-this is amazing!" Clementine exclaimed and slapped Riley playfully on the shoulder. She expected Riley to say some weird comeback, or something cheesy, but she didn't even crack a smile. Her eyes filled with sorrow and she held her head in her hands. Clementine was immediately by her friends side. She rarely ever saw Riley like this, so down and just upset, but she didn't know why.

"What's up, come on, tell me." Clementine said again, wrapping an arm around her friends shoulder. Riley looked up at her and spoke.

"Being an artist, well, it's a blessing and a curse. You remember how in history class the teacher kept saying all artists are wackjobs? Yeah, she was right. I wasn't the same person I am now." She gulped. "I went over the line of sanity. I've killed people, Clem. That's blood I'll never be able to get off my hands, no matter how much I change."

Clementine was a bit taken back by what she said. Yeah, she remembered something about the teacher saying all artists are nuts, but she didn't think that Riley could ever become like that. All that really mattered is if Riley is sane now, not how she was before. And Clem has killed people before, but that was out of self defense, but she still felt guilty.

"I'm glad I found you, who fucking knows what I'd be if -" "Hey, no chick flick moments." Clementine stated, interrupting her. She hoped that'd put a smile on her face, after all, Riley always said it to her. A warm smile formed on her face, it just melted Clementine. Clementine snickered and hopped off the bed, but Riley kept smirking at her.

"Luke slept in your bed, didn't he?" Clementine's cheeks felt like they were on fire after those words left Riley's mouth. Clementine stuttered, unable to form words. Riley giggled and shot straight up off the bed, she patted Clem on the shoulder.

"Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and you will die. Don't have sex-" Clem cut Riley off right there, "Say another Mean Girls quote and I'm gonna break your fingers." Quickly, Riley ran for the door.

"You can't touch Kevin G!"

 **(A/N: Riley, omfg, I love you XD)**

* * *

Everyone was just sitting around , talking, trying to find something to amuse themselves. Riley was sitting over by the window drawing something. Sarah was reading, but the book had a cover over it, nobody could see the words 'Fifty Shades Of Grey'. Pete and Nick were bickering about something stupid. Kenny and Walter were boarding up more of the windows, Sarita and Carlos were discussing something about Sarah and Matthew was nowhere to be seen. The sky was starting to turn dark and the sun was disappearing into the horizon.

Clem was sitting on the couch in front of the fire, just staring into the flames. Watching them glow and roar. They seemed to hypnotize her. She was having so much fun, sarcasm intended.

"Heya Clem." Luke greeted her while taking a seat next to her on the couch. His presence broke the trance she was in. Clem turned away and looked off into the distance, she didn't want it to be awkward. After a few more seconds of silence, she finally spoke up.

"I don't know what to talk about."

"Me too." Luke said a second later, letting out a small nervous laugh. Clem turned to face him, again.

"Um...How about a game of twenty questions?" Luke suggested, "Okay?" Clem replied. He smiled and stroked his chin, two adults in a walker infested world are playing a game of twenty questions out of sheer boredom, great.

"I ask first, when's your birthday?" Clementine asked, smirking at him. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Riley waving around a piece of paper with the word 'Cluke' on it. Clementine ignored it and looked straight back into Luke's brown eyes.

"November 8th, um..If you could have one superpower, what would it be?"

"Telekinesis! Duh! Think of how much havoc I can create with that! Alright Luke, what's your favorite color?"

"I've always liked the color green, favorite movie?"

"I gotta say Titanic, I'm the king of the world. What's your favorite song?"

"Uhh, I'm gonna say 'Hey Brother', what's YOUR favorite song?"

Clementine immediately regretted asking that question, she should've known he was gonna ask her that right back. She knew what her favorite song was, but he would probably think she was weird if she told him. He's into modern, country music, and here Clementine is, into trap, dubstep, and hard rock. Clementine looked up to see Luke smirking at her evilly at her, waiting for an answer.

"Uhh..'Dum Dee Dum'?" She answered, unsure of how he would react to it, he looked at her a bit surprised.

"I wasn't actually expecting that, I thought you were gonna say something worse, like 'What Does The Fox Say'." Luke said with a thankful tone in his voice. Clem laughed at this, she remembered when that video aired, everyone was talking about it. It was so annoying, and she was surprised that Luke thought she liked it.

"What Does The Fox Say? Really Luke?" "Hey, everyone at my school liked it, so don't blame me for thinking you did." Luke said, defending himself.

"Do you like it? You said everyone at your school, does that include you?" Clementine asked, smirking at him. His face turned bright red and he scratched the back of his head.

"You do!" Clementine exclaimed, trying not to laugh, but then his face turned an even brighter red and she couldn't keep in her laughter anymore. After a few seconds of laughing her ass off, she looked up to Luke who was wearing a glare on his face.

Now Clem knows that Luke likes What Does The Fox Say. But the duo didn't even notice the dark figure in the corner of the room. Suddenly, scream emerged from Sarah's lungs. She dropped her book and it hit the ground with a thud. Her eyes couldn't move off the ground. Carlos dashed over to his daughter and quickly shielded her eyes.

Must be something worse than a spider. Her sobs were muffled in Carlos's shoulder, everyone walked over. Trying to get a peak at what was so shocking. As Kenny got a lot at what all the commotion was about, he dropped his hammer on the floor. His mouth hung open and his eyes went wide with shock. Luke tried to hold Clem back, but she broke through the crowd.

There, laying on the floor, was a head.

Christa's head.

Clementine knew exactly who did it, but one problem. Who would believe her? She wasn't shocked nor surprised, she knew, deep down, she knew that this would happen. Clementine glanced behind her shoulder for a quick second, she saw her. The Girl In The Field. Her hands soaked in fresh blood, probably Christa's. She smiled at Clementine, and spoke. But it seemed like Clementine was the only one who could hear it.

 _They're all going to die. One by one._

And in seconds, she was gone again. Kenny managed to wrap his head around what just happened. "C-christa? Who could've done this?" He said, but it came out as just a whisper. Clementine didn't utter word. She was angry. Furious, but she hid it all behind her wolf-like eyes. Everything was happening too fast.

There were loud whooshing sounds coming from the turbine out front, "We gotta' turn that damn thing off before it attracts and walkers!" Kenny announced, ignoring the head that was still on the ground. Kenny ran for the door, picking up his rifle along the way. Clementine shook away the unpleasant thoughts and followed him. Carlos instructed Sarah to stay put and jogged over to Kenny.

Rebecca, Alvin, Sarah and Pete stayed behind. There was an abrupt band and the lights around went out, leaving the survivors in the darkness of the night.

"The transformer musta' gone! I gotta go fix it!" Kenny stated, and before anyone could stop him, he ran off to fix it. Leaving the others by the turbine. The air was crisp and cold, snow covered the ground, but they could handle it. Carlos opened up the turbine control panel. He looked around, eyes darting between everyone. "Does anyone know how to do this?" Carlos asked, now checking the trees.

"I can do it." Clementine said, remembering how her father was an engineer. She used to work down in her Dad's auto-shop from time to time. Riley would help as well, but she would usually end up walking away and getting a sugar high on soda. Speaking of Riley, she was wondering around with her gun aimed high.

Luke covered Clem while she worked on the turbine. _Turn off this..now insert here..push and turn..Done!_ Clementine thought to herself. The turbine slowly stopped spinning and then eventually the survivors were left with utter silence.

"This doesn't seem right." Nick muttered, looking around with a pistol clutched tightly in his hand.

"AHHH!" Everyone turned to see Matthew having his neck ripped out by a walker, Walter shrieked and quickly shot it. Matthew fell to the ground clutching his neck, the walker landed right beside him, unmoving. Walter stood in shock unknowing what to do. At least thirty more walkers emerged from the trees, groaning and seeking flesh.

Clementine pulled out her gun and string firing away at the walkers. A walker was about to get the jump on Luke, but she quickly fired at it.

"Thank me later!" She called out and repeated the process until her gun made the horrible sound of an empty cartridge.

"Shit." She muttered under her breath, she turned to see the others continuing to shoot the dead. There were about five walkers heading her way, all she had left was a knife, and her face twisted in anger. _The Girl In The Field, it's all her fault! Once I get my fucking hands on her, she's gonna wish she was never born!_ Clementine thought to herself.

Her eyes darkened as she approached the walkers, she attacked one near her. She kicked it right in the chest, causing it to fall down to the ground. She raised her foot above it's head and sent it straight down.

Blood splattered all over her legs, but she didn't care. She lifted her bloody foot out of the walker's head and shook off a bit of the plasma and crushed brain. Another walker came at her, she raised her knife and sent it into it's skull. It didn't kill it the first time, so she yanked out the knife and repeatedly stabbed it in the head.

It finally collapsed to the ground by her feet, she got to the final walker and before she could strike, a different knife went straight through it's head. She recognized that blade, the walker fell to reveal Riley clutching her knife, in a fighting stance.

"You okay?" She asked quickly, scanning the area.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Clem said in a harsh tone, she was telling people that she was fine more often than she'd like. Riley nodded and headed over to help Nick, who had a walker right on top of him. Clem needed to tell the others what was going on, she neared the doors of the lodge, but stopped in her tracks at the sound of an Ak-47 firing.

Their group didn't have those types of guns, so she stopped in shock. She glanced behind her shoulder. People emerged from the tree line, it reminded her of what happened back at the cabin. They fired at the walkers that were still standing, at first she thought whoever it was came to help them.

But nobody does that anymore. And to her knowledge, only one person would have guns like that. Carver. She dashed inside, that was all she needed to snap out of the shock. In the reflection of the lodge windows, she could see Nick, Riley, Carlos, Sarita and Walter being surrounded by Carver's men.

Alvin was hiding behind the railing on the balcony and singled Clem to over, she quickly obliged. Pete, Alvin, Rebecca and Sarah were all up there, watching through one of the tall lodge windows.

"Where's my dad?!" Sarah panicked, she glanced out the window and saw her dad. And there was nothing the others could do to keep her from bursting out of the lodge and running straight to her father. Thankfully, Carver's men didn't shoot at her.

Carver was the one wearing the big brown coat with the fur lining. Craver led his men and the others into the lodge. He made them get down on their knees so he could tie their hands behind their backs. Clem watched in fury as Luke and Riley were roughly shoved down to the ground.

"Man, how the fuck are we supposed to cover these guys and look for the others too?" One of Carver's men said below the remaining members of the group. Clementine peeked over the railing again and saw Carver walk over to Carlos and yanked him to his feet.

"Now I didn't want to have to do this, but you're leaving me no choice!" Carver announced and grabbed Carlos's fingers, he took the doctor's pointer finger and bent it completely backwards, breaking it. Carlos cried out in pain and his daughter was screaming at the top of her lungs.

"I know you're out there! Rebecca, Alvin and Pete! Rebecca, our baby deserves to be raised in a place of safety! This can be real simple, just come out and show your faces!" Carver stated, his voice bouncing off the walls of the lodge, he grabbed another one of Carlos's fingers and broke it.

Rebecca, Alvin, Pete and Clem all exchanged worried glances, Rebecca had a shaking hand over her baby bump. She glanced up and looked Clem right in the eyes.

"Clem, go find Kenny." Rebecca begged, but Pete shot her a glare.

"He'll kill Carlos. We need to show ourselves." Pete sent the same look to Alvin, and he surprisingly agreed.

"You need a doctor Bec, think about it." Alvin pleaded at his wife, Clem thought about it for a moment and then made her decision.

"I'm giving up." Rebecca was out numbered on the vote, she gave in and shakily stood up.

"BILL, STOP!" Rebecca yelled, earning the man's attention. Carver threw Carlos's body to the ground, he hit with a thud. Sarah struggled to get closer, but one of the men held her back.

They all got up from their hiding spot and headed down the creaking staircase and to Carver's clutches. When Clementine reached the bottom, she was forced down on her knees, the man earning a sharp glare from Riley and Luke. The man had her between Alvin and Riley. Riley and Luke sent her a look saying: _Are you okay?_ She nodded, lying.

A gunshot echoed through the air, it sounded like a rifle… _Kenny?_ The bullet hit the man standing in front of Clem, straight through his head. Blood splashed onto her face, hot and fresh. She tried to shake it out of her eyes, but no prevail. She thought from someone else's point of view, she looked like a crazy axe murderer.

Carver's face filled with rage, he signaled for another man to bring Pete up to the front, with a gun aimed straight at his head. Craver pulled Walter up to his feet and stood right next to the man who had his grip on Pete.

"Go to he-" Two more gunshots echoed through the air, Walter and Pete collapsed to the ground. The two bullets went clean through their heads.

"PETE!" The strangled cry comes from Nick's throat. He begins throwing curses at Carver, hot and angry tears lined his eyes, he one who shot Pete walked over and put a rag over his mouth, gagging him.

"That's for our man! I'm gonna march more of your friends out there if you don't give up!" Carver announced angrily. He took cover by one of the lodge pillars.

Another shot went off, it went straight into the wood of the pillar, missing Carver's face by mere inches. That just angered Carver more, he marched over and grabbed Clementine roughly. He pressed his pistol against her temple. She's been in that position before, except she was the one holding the gun.

"NO!" Luke cried out and made a dash for them, before Luke got too close, Carver fired his pistol at Luke, he bullet going straight into his leg.

"Luke-" An Ak-47 smashed right into Clem's face, as echoes, Clem could Luke clutching his bleeding leg in pain, she could hear Riley calling out her name. Riley, Luke, and Kenny were the one's that cared the most about her. Not a second later, a very familiar figure came through the lodge doors with his hands above his head, surrendering. Kenny.

"Take them back to the truck, we're going home, as a family." Carver said, Clementine couldn't believe what she was hearing, but her eyes were glued on Luke, who had blood slivering out of his tightly clutched hands. He got shot in the leg because he didn't want Carver to hurt her.

One by one everyone was brought outside, Clementine was the last one to leave, but before she did, Carver kneeled down in front of her.

"You're going to fit in very well, Clementine."

A FEW HOURS LATER

"Is she fucking done yet?" One of Carver's men, named Troy, called out impatiently.

"I am now." Sarah said annoyed, she zipped up her pants and emerged from the bushes and shrubs to be greeted with that god awful face of Carver. Clem was practically forced to get out of the truck and stay with Sarah. She didn't want to leave Luke alone. Carver was telling the other members back at his camp that there would be new recruits, their group.

"Everything come out alright girls?" Troy asked with a smirk, Clem's fists were balling up into fists, she wanted to kick his ass. But that would just earn her a punishment of a bullet to the face or multiple hard smacks across the face. Troy turned around to Carver and started talking about him freezing his ass off.

"Troy, get Sarah in the van, I need to talk to Clem _privately."_

Carver took a step closer to her, being able to smell his musk. Not pleasant. And the look in his eyes certainly didn't make her feel any better. Clem tried to back up, but Carver gripped her arm, keeping her from going anywhere. Clem snarled.

"Are you just going to let Luke bleed out!? Are you just gonna let him die!?"

Carver chuckled at her words and smiled deviously.

"That's actually what I want to talk to you about, I can give you medicine and supplies to help Luke, but in return, you have to do something for me…" He began to rub her side, and Clem knew, in his eyes, what he wanted.

* * *

A/N: Fuck you Carver. FUCK U.

 **Death count:**

 **RIP Christa**

 **RIP Matthew**

 **RIP Pete**

 _Why so serious?_

-JOKER OUT!


	7. Shepard Of Fire

Clementine quickly threw on her jacket and tired to make her hair a bit less messy. Sweat seeped out of her pours, and she wiped it away with her sleeve. Her breathing was irregular and she gripped the edges of Carver's desk, in his office, to relax.

She muttered curses under her breath, she did it for Luke. And that was all that mattered, the thought of seeing him alive and well made everything that just took place worth it.

Through some of the cracks in the curtains, Clementine saw where her friends were staying. A big gated area, it had a resemblance to a prison courtyard.

Bunkbeds lined the walls to the back, a small fire pit sat in the middle and she spotted a few recognizable faces there. The entire view of Howes, Carver's camp, could be seen from his windows. She ran her fingers across the windowsill and took a deep breath.

"What am I gonna tell them? What..What would Luke think? I did this for him..Just…Okay, Clementine calm down, just, don't tell them…Tell them Carver wanted to lecture you again..Yeah.." Clementine muttered to herself, quietly, in a hope of calming down.

She grabbed her hat and pulled it over her head, she could hear Carver coming back with the supplies.

As she turned to face him, she caught something in the corner of her eye. Carver's revolver sat on the corner of his desk, if she moved now, she could get it.

Holding him hostage would be a stupid idea, considering outside his doors were dozens of heavily armed men and women.

No, bad idea.

Carver stood in the doorway, a bag full of medical supplies clutched in his hand. Through the stretching plastic, Clem could see peroxide, needles, bandages and more. She walked up to him and ripped the bag from his hand.

"A deal is a deal." He muttered as she exited the room and walked down to the hallway to where here friends were, and she didn't look back. She could hear Carver stepping back into his office, feeling quite pleased with himself.

Clem's hands turned into fists and she sped up her pace, she knew guards were watching her.

The air was crisp and bit at her skin, making her even colder because of the sweat that still covered her body. Many of the people here referred the prison her friends were staying in as the 'pen'.

She might as well.

Through the heavy metal gate were two people looking at her, Riley and Kenny.

Luke was laying down on a bunk bed in the back with Carlos tending him. Rebecca, Alvin, Nick, Sarita and Sarah stayed put at the fire pit. And no sign of The Girl in The Field, thankfully.

Troy walked over and raised the gate for her, and he angrily closed it behind her as she stepped in. Before she could get a word out, Riley enveloped her in a hug, it really knocked the breath out of Clem's lungs, but she melted into it. It was good feeling to have your best friend in arms reach.

Riley's warm breaths hit her neck and sent shiver up her spine.

"You hella scared us, Clem. Where were you!?" Riley questioned, pulling away from the hug and gripping her shoulders tightly, staring her right in the eyes. Clementine stuttered a reply.

"Carver took me up to his office to lecture me, thought I was gonna be a issue."

Riley took a second to process the information before looking down at what was in Clem's hand. Her eyes widened and Kenny walked a bit closer.

"How'd you get that?" Kenny questioned, putting his hands on his hips and staring Clementine down.

Clementine lied to the best of her abilities.

"I got through to him about giving Luke supplies, stubborn bastard." Kenny raised an eyebrow.

"But-Ah-nevermind. Luke's gonna need that, he's on his way out, that doctor better know what to do." Kenny muttered and stomped away, walking over to his lady friend, Sarita. They exchanged warm look and sat next to each other. Hand in hand.

The sight made a smile creep up on her face, but at the moment, she had more important things to do. She walked over to where Luke and Carlos were. Carlos was holding a blood covered rag to his leg, applying pressure. Luke's face went through multiple expressions of pain.

Clem handed the bag to Carlos and let him do his work. The color on Luke's face had drained, eyes shut, and some blood slivered out of the corners of his mouth. She kneeled by him and brushed a few strands of his golden brown hair behind his ears. He stirred and his tired eyes opened up to see her.

Clem gave him a friendly smile, he managed a grin, he was glad to see her, but he couldn't get a word out from his sore, dry, throat. Clem reached out and held his hand, then leaned over to his forehead, planting a kiss there.

"You're gonna be alright, I promise." And she believed it, before Luke went back under, Clem saw a glint of happiness in his eyes. She loved him, and she didn't want to see him go through so much pain. She nodded at Carlos and walked over to a an empty bunk a few ways away.

So much was going through her head, it was almost too much to handle. The Girl, Christa's head, Luke's leg, the deal, and Carver. She sat there for a few minutes without blinking, just being deep in thought. She tried to ignore the painful grunts coming from Luke as Carlos fixed up his leg.

"Clem?"

Her eyes darted over to a person by the bunk, Riley. Concern seemed to bleed her heart dry as she continued to stare at her. Her dark brown hair glistened in the moonlight above them and her eyes were that familiar green color. She took a seat next to Clem on the bunk.

"Most of us are heading off to bed right now, you..okay?" Riley asks, Clem didn't want her to worry, so, she lied. There was already enough to be worried about.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Can't you just tell me the truth? I know you're not 'fine' Clem, I can see it in your eyes."

Now she was busted, there was no turning back. What was she thinking? Lying to Riley? Riley knows her like the back of her hand, she had no chance of getting away with it. Riley examined her for a minute before her eyes went wide.

"Wait, did you have sex..With Carver?" Riley questioned, grabbing Clem's arms and making them face to face. Clem gulped, unknowing of what to say. Riley shook her head, and the expression on her face became a confused and hurt one.

"Why? Why did you do that?"

"It was a deal. The sex..for the medicine.." Clementine croaked out, being ashamed of herself, but she did it for Luke. She might've just saved his life. Riley leaned forward and pulled Clem in for another hug, running her hand through her hair, trying to calm her down. She whispered sweet nothings into her ear, and Clem was desperate enough to listen.

"I-I can't tell anyone, not even Luke.." Clementine muttered into Riley's dark hair, she was scared. That was happening more and more to become a regular thing, and she hated it. She hated being scared.

"Shh, It's gonna be okay. I ain't gonna let anything happen to you, I'll always be here." Riley says into her ear and then pulls away from the long hug. Staring right back into her friends eyes. She reaches over and pulls a piece of Clem's hair behind her ear.

"Get some sleep, according to that Troy asshole, it's gonna be a long day tomorrow." Riley said before getting off of Clem's bunk and heading to her own. Clem laid down and tried to relax. And after a few minutes of being deep in thought, she impossibly fell asleep.

*Clementine's dream*

 _She's sitting in a chair in a dark room, a single lightbulb flickering above her head. Across the room was the familiar Girl in The Field. Staring at her with those large, glowing, blue eyes._

 _"The voices…THE VOICES!" The girl started to scream, she collapsed on the floor and clutched the sides of her head as if it were going to implode. She cried out in pain, and after a few moments of the intense agony, she looked up at Clementine._

 _"Those men in those white coats did this to me..They put the voices in my head..And I killed them. I KILLED THEM ALL!" She began to cackle, she got up into a standing position and walked up to Clementine, only a few inches from her face._

 _"Do you not remember your cousin? Do you not remember me? Bella?"_

*End of Dream*

Before Clem got kicked awake by Troy, she thought about her dream.

 _The Girl in the Field is my cousin. Bella. How? What did she mean by the voices? The men in white coats? Doctors? Scientists? And…How can she be real?_

After being kicked awake, Clem had to listen to Carver's shitty speech, and she tried not to make eye contact with him. She couldn't even say goodbye to Luke, who was up and conscious. She was given a job in the greenhouse, along side Sarah and Riley.

"How many people do we have to kill to get out of here?" Riley whispered as they walked past some guards. It's been on Clem's mind for awhile, and she expected Riley to ask sooner or later, how many people were they going to have to kill? If it meant the group would be getting out safely, Clem would kill them all. She was game on whatever plan the group would come up with, unless it was incredibly stupid.

"As many as we need to." Clem says, Clem didn't want to hear her lecture her about how fucked up she was, so, she stomped ahead. Walkers on the other side of the fence moaned and clawed at the wood boards, one day those fences would come crashing down, and Clem hoped that the group wouldn't be here for that.

As the duo walked past some abandoned stores, she could see some of the other 'inmates' working and hammering down planks of wood on the windows. She could see through the cracks in the boards a woman glaring at her, someone the pen inmates referred to as "Jane". As they walked away, Clem could feel Jane's cold stare penetrating the back of her head. There was something _odd_ about her.

"HEY, I SAID WORK FASTER!"

In a store up ahead, the front door swung open and a person was suddenly pushed out, falling to the ground. Hard. Sarah.

Troy then comes out, his face twisting in anger, he roughly grabs her again and raises his hand to give her a hard smack. Even though Clem wasn't very fond of Sarah, she wasn't about to just watch her get hurt.

"Please don't!" Sarah whimpered, Clem made a dash for them, Riley's footsteps not far behind. Before Troy's hand collided with Sarah's terrified face, Clem shoved him away. He lets go of Sarah and glares at Clem.

"You are trouble, If Carver would let me, I would've killed you a long time ago, but you're his fucking sex toy!" He steps over Sarah's whimpering body and stands right in front of Clem, she could feel his husky, hot, breaths on her skin. It was disgusting, it reminded her of…

Troy grinned evilly, his eyes turning dark. He shoves her, but she doesn't fall. And she doesn't ask him to stop. She stands her ground, and she gave him her best death glare. He sends a fist into Clem's stomach, pain shot through her veins and she stumbles a few feet backward from the impact. She clutches her chest tightly and some blood manages to escape her mouth, and drips onto the floor.

The metallic taste lingering on her tongue. He smiles in satisfaction, but before he can punch her again, Riley gets in-between them.

"You wanna hurt her?! You're going to have to go through me first, asshole!" She yells in his face, a bit of spit landing on his cheek, he wiped it away with his sleeve and narrowed his eyes at her.

"Honey, you're going to have to move or you'll get a bullet in your head." He snarls with a bit of silliness at the end. It was unsettling enough.

"Shoot me, bitch." She continues in the dispute, fighting back against his awful retorts. Just give it time and they'd be physically dueling it out. She scowls at him and crosses her arms, although her hands were bawling up into fists. Troy finally forfeits and turns around to Sarah. He roughly yanked on her whimpering body and pulled her into a standing position. He grunts in frustration.

"Do I really have to deal with all of you? Ya'll go bother Bonnie, I don't want to have to babysit you stupid whores!"

Riley stepped up to Sarah and put an arm around the younger girl's shoulder. A large crack was visible on the front of her ruby red glass, she looked terrified, almost petrified.

"Move the fuck along, if I see any of you sluts out of line..You'll wish you were dead."

"How the fuck are we supposed to get out of here?!" Riley asks as the group takes their seat around the crackling fire pit. She picked at the dirt underneath her nails from the previous job they worked after that incident with Troy. The heat of the fire tickled Clem's skin as she reached her hands out for warmth. All the inmates gathered around, a person that Clem didn't get a very good introduction to, Mike, helped Luke over to a seat by her. She gave him a thankful nod at him before he took his seat.

Luke's physical state had improved, Carver had just enough mercy in his cold heart to let him rest up. The color in his skin had returned and the pain in his chocolate brown eyes had almost faded. His face lit up like a lightbulb when he saw Clem enter the pen, but it returned to an expression of seriousness. Kenny and Mike conversed with a guard back in the armory, Bonnie. She said that she had a plan to help out the inmates that night. Clementine thought it as a blessing.

"Come on, Bonnie said she could help us get out of the pen if we can get the PA system going. Second she hears it, she'll run over and spring us." Mike adds, folding his arms and leaning back in his plastic patio chair. Clementine nodded, she had to make her very own vote count.

"Well, genius, I don't think you explained how we're going to get through that herd that's coming our way." Kenny said in a annoyed tone, Mike glared at him. Clem thought about it for a moment, yes, the whole idea of a herd in their way was a bit of a shock, but she's walked through herds before. Jane was about to say something, but Clem cut her off.

"There's a way to get past walkers without being noticed, you just have to cover yourself with their blood and guts, they'll think you're one of them. I've done it before." Kenny's eyes widened, but then he knew what she meant. That was how she and Lee got out of the Marsh house, but Lee didn't go much farther than that.

"She's right. Once we make it through the herd, we meet up at Parkers Run." Jane adds, folding her arms and giving the evil-eye to Clem for stealing her "Spotlight".

"Sounds great." Clem said, but Luke wasn't quite sold on the idea. "It's not great."

 _Luke? Why the hell is he disagreeing with this, doesn't he want to get out of here? We need to leave tonight, and thats how it's gonna be._ Clementine thought to herself. His eyes dart over to Rebecca and Sarah.

"Well, we're ready to leave people behind." Jane muttered, but she was unlucky enough for everyone to hear what she said.

"We're not leaving anyone behind! The plan doesn't change, we're leaving tonight." Riley stated, and thank god for it.

"Alright then, I guess we're leaving today, who's gonna sett off the speakers?" Luke asked while getting up into a wobbly standing position. Trying not to put much weight on his wounded leg. And eventually, everyones eyes meet up on Clementine. She sighed in defeat.

"Wait, n-no, it's too dangerous, someone else needs to do it, not her." Luke stutters and Riley doesn't even try to stop her. She knew that she couldn't.

"Come on Clem," Kenny says, leading Clem away from the fire pit and towards a long line of rope hanging down from the roof, it was attached to a wheel like object at the top, but Clementine couldn't help but think to herself how Carver could've missed this. Clem grasped the rope tightly, and Mike pulled down, sending her upwards.

"Clem, the speakers will be in his office, it already has music in it so all you have to do is turn it on, and when you're done meet us in the stockroom." Rebecca said, and Clem nodded.

"Be careful!" Luke calls out from below and Riley gives her a friendly wave.

"I will!"

Now on the roof, Clem heads over to the skylight directly above his office, the bastard has tinted windows, she cant see in till she gets in. Clem lifts up the skylight and jumps inside, the familiar smell of rotting wood and musk manage to creep back inside Clem's head, making her anger for Carver grow larger and larger.

The hairs on the back of her neck started to rise and the air became deathly cold, someone was standing in the doorway, and Clem knew exactly who it was.

"What happened to you?" Clem asked without turning around, an inner sadness and depression tried to fill Clem's heart again. Just the thought of her own cousin, her family, being turned into a monster . Bella wasn't one for talking, and when she did, she was a giggly, innocent, harmless girl. Only around three years had passed, making her sixteen.

"What happened to Bella?" Clem asked again, except with more anger and fire in her words. She finally turned to face her "Cousin". She stood in the doorway, her eyes illuminating her face, which was hiding in the shadows. She giggled and twirled, then took a few steps into the room.

"I am Bella, but the voices have taken control. Those men in their white coats said that my parents and I would be safe in their care, the next day I found Mommy and Daddy dead in their chamber. And...I made their brain burst. Don't you see, Clemmy clue? It's like they put souls in my head, and..and..They want me to break you, Clemmy clue!"

And in seconds, she was gone. Vanished without a trace.

Clem shook her head and tried to get back to the matter at hand, she walked over to the corner of the room and looked around for the speaker, it was underneath a pile of files and documents, she threw them off the side and they scattered around on the floor. She turned it on and thankfully it worked. She could hear the store announcements and sales from the inside and the outside of Howes.

Clem wanted Carver's head on a platter, she wanted to kill him. For everything he's done. Her eyes went dark, and her hands bawled up into fists. And he thinks he can getaway with it, the thought made Clem want to laugh. If anyone stands in her way from killing him, they better wish they were dead.

Clem bursts out of the room and into the hallway, walking down the creaking steps and into the main quad, there were guards scattered around, but she wasn't afraid of being caught anymore. She walks in the shadows. The others were probably already waiting for her in the stockroom, but Clem's taking a bit of a detour, just in case the group is being held up.

Clementine dashes into the armory and quickly looked around. Clear. All the Ak's were gone and a few shells were scattered around on the floor, she quickly picked up two and placed them in her pocket. There was another skylight, she's studied the routes on the roof. She knows what she's doing. She gets a grip on one of the large metal shelves and pushed herself up. Continuing the process, she finally makes it up to the roof.

The cold, midnight air hit the bare areas on her face and hands. But kept her mind straight on one thing. Carver. Suddenly, the greenhouse door opens, rough and fast, and out comes Troy. He raises his Ak-12 to fire at her, but she's too quick. She ducks and charges at him. She kicks him in the chest and his Ak crashes to the ground.

"You little bitch!" He grabs onto her shoulders and sends a fist flying to her face, but she stands her ground, like she always did. Suddenly, Troy jumps her and slams her against the concrete roof. Her vision turned blurry, but she fought the darkness that was creeping into the corner of her eyes. Troy raised a fist to punch her again, but a knife plunged into his back, and before she knew it, Troy was just a corpse.

With the little strength she had, she pushed him off to be looking straight at Kenny's heart warming face. He held out an arm for her, and took it eagerly.

"Come on, we gotta get out of here." He ushered her, they made for the fire escape. But before they could even make it over the side, a gunshot rocketed through the air, and Kenny collapsed. Holding his shoulder, but unable to keep his balance, he fell over the side. The last thing he heard before his life ended was Clementine's screams.


End file.
